He Who Brings Salvation
by sephiroth12285
Summary: My sequel to He Who Brings Destruction is here. Takes place two years after the events of the story with new friends joining the cast and old enemies returning. New Gundams and mobile suits as well. R&R new chapters coming soon
1. Chapter 1 The awakening of the Nightmare

A/N: here it is the sequel to He Who Brings Destruction. It takes place two years after events of the last story. As some characters have predicted old enemies are stirring and a few new ones are bound to appear along with some new heroes. But first off if you haven't seen it yet the winners of my little poll to decide which UC Gundam characters will be appearing in the story, in chapter 2…well here are the lucky four.

In fourth place we have Christina Mackenzie, in third we have Jerid Messa and in second we have Kamille Bidan. Lastly and certainly not least…our first place winner who won hands down.

*Drum roll*

Congratulations to Sayla Mass our first place winner, needless to say in light of that I'll probably make a Sayla/Amuro pairing in this story. Anyway here is the first chapter with chapter two coming soon. Enjoy :)

Chapter 1

The awakening of the Nightmare

It was the year Cosmic Era 73; two years after the start and the end of the one year Bloody Valentine War where both the military forces of the PLANTs known as ZAFT and the gigantic forces of the Earth called the Earth Alliance waged an all out war against one another, but the war eventually came to an end when a peace treaty was signed at the site where the tragedy began.

At Junius Seven a treaty of peace was signed between the two powerful sides. Peace reigned for a time of about two years since the war ended, however there were those who lurked in the shadows trying to start a new war while there were those there also preparing for it.

However there was another group who was hoping to prevent it, but now it was a time of peace. While soldiers rested or preformed lesser duties; the politicians of the world was a busy as ever. It was C.E. 72 October 2nd; PLANT colony Armory one at Largepoint four. But our story begins on Earth at the country of the Orb Union, Onogoro Island.

Deep underground inside the Morgenroete Research Development complex a trio of figures was standing before a large metal hanger door. The doors appeared to have been reinforced with plates of armor at least forty inches thick. The two men were wearing the military uniforms of the Orb Union. They were wearing body armor and a helmet while each soldier held an assault rifle. Behind them laid the bodies of Orb soldiers who appeared to have been killed in a firefight that had happened a few moments ago.

The third figure with them wore a black trench coat, black gloves, a light purple buttoned jacket with a black collar shirt with the top unbuttoned underneath and lastly an orange tie-like escrow. This gentleman had shoulder length blonde hair and wore a pair of large black sunglasses that concealed one half of his face leaving his mouth and nose exposed.

"We're here sir." One of the soldiers noted as he pulled a key card from his equipment pouch. The other soldier was doing the same.

"Then open the door. Let me see the beast that resides inside. Make it quick I am sure those gunshots alerted someone to our presences." The blonde haired man said, as the two soldiers took up position in front of two keypads on opposite sides of the door ready to slide their keycards.

"Ok on my count; 3, 2, 1…now!" Both soldiers slid their cards through the keypad card reader at the exact same time triggering the doors to slide to the sides to allow entry. Inside the darken hanger stood a brand new mobile suit standing at 19.05 meters. The machine was no doubt a Gundam cast in dull gray with Gundanium Alloy Armor plating.

It two pairs of wings on its back giving it four wings in all, its body frame seemed based from the Blitz Gundam except its head and body was modified and designed to house a powerful main engine system on its back and to house a very powerful stomach mounted MGX-2235 Callidus multi-phase beam cannon.

Its head had a tall mow hawk-like video sensor on its head, its face plate had no open mouth vents like some Gundams, but there were slit-like marks under the eyes, combined with the unique style of its antennas (there was one purple antenna shaped like a V under a red V-shaped sensor jewel and two more extending black antennas extended outward from both sides of the jewel (when the phase shift was activated)) its face and head were based from the ZGMF-X12A Testament Gundam, but some design and style alterations gave the Gundam's face a imitating and menacing look.

It was armed with hip mounted multi-phase beam cannons and bolstered a pair of heats whips on its back. The wings on its back were large capable of opening up when its special high-speed proposition system was activated, but instead of one pair of wings there were two, one smaller than the first set.

It also carried with two beam swords on its hips, palm-mounted MMI-X345 Palma Fiocina hand beam cannons, a pair of Schneid Schutz SX1021 positron reflector beam shields on its wrists and the usual CWIS weapons mounted on its head. In each of its hands was a compact state of the art High-powered Super Positron Buster Rifle, like the Wing Zero these weapons could be combined into a powerful double barrel weapon.

"So this is the horrible nightmare mistakenly created by Orb…the ZGMF-X666A Anubis. The rumors were true."

"Sir you should board the machine now before the alarm is" The soldier began, but suddenly the sound of a loud alarm being set off was echoing through the facility.

The blonde haired man laughed for a moment, "say no more…I'll leave in the Anubis as planned. You two get out here and try to stall them."

The two Orb soldiers hurried out of the hanger as the blonde haired man stepped onto an elevator. He activated the elevator to take him up to the open cockpit of the sleeping behemoth. The sound of gunfire could be heard in the background, as Orb soldiers were getting closer to the hanger. It was apparent that the soldiers who had accompanied him were now in a gunfight against Morgenroete security and other Orb soldiers.

Once inside the man in the trench coat closed the cockpit before he proceeded to activate the Gundam as an ORB operating system began booting up displaying the following acronym: **G**eneration, **U**ltimate, **N**etwork, **D**omination, **A**ssault, **M**odule system.

"Awaken Anubis!" The blonde haired man said as the eyes of the devil machine flashed bright blue signifying its activation. Its Phase Shift Armor activated reinforcing its Gundamium Alloy body as the machine changed from a dull gray color to black with some red decorating small areas of its body and purple spots decorating slightly larger areas of its body and its wings.

The soldiers arrived just in time to see Anubis break free of its restraints.


	2. Chapter 2 Eight days earlier

A/N: thanks for the review and here is the entrance of the new players.

Chapter 2

Eight days earlier

It was the beginning of a new day as crew members aboard a slightly modified Salamis-Class Cruiser known as the Iceland, an old vintage model from the One Year War that was modified and refitted for use on a special search and survey mission. Despite the somehow delicacy of the mission it had, the crew was actually fairly small comprised of mostly a skeleton crew with three pilots. One was a fresh recruit from the military academy; the other two were seasoned experience pilots, except one was practically well known while the other served as a test pilot during the war.

Aside from standard military personnel serving aboard the ship, there was a civilian engineer and research developer with her son accompanying her.

On the bridge as the last of the overnight crewmen left to retire to their cabins until their next shift, the captain of the vessel entered and assumed his place in the command chair. The Commodore was a tall dignified man, fifty-six years of age, with blonde hair and a beard with sideburns along with blue eyes dressed in the appropriate Earth Federation Uniform.

The crew members on the bridge snapped to attention and saluted the Commodore as he assumed his seat right before returning the salute and gesturing for his crew to return to their stations.

"Commodore Forer we are picking up a faint reading from below the lunar surface…we're directly above it."

"Any details"

"Nothing yet sir, but we're having a hard time getting a clear reading through all of iron and rock between us and the source."

"Anyway we can deploy a mobile suit to check it out, any caves or tunnels in the area?"

"There is one…four miles ahead at the base of the large crater ahead of us."

Blex Forer examined the overhead monitor in front of him where he saw where the cave was located; he had hoped finally they may have something. Since two years ago one of the biggest mysteries of the world began when a machine piloted by a man named Nicholas Peacecraft single-handedly devastated and crushed the Earth Federation pursuit force sent to stop the Zeon remnants of the Delaz Fleet.

But before a second pursue force could be organized the survivors and the fleet that came to support them disappeared. No trace…nothing the ships completely vanished leading to one of the biggest searches ever conducted within the Earth Sphere, but after a year of searching the Earth Federation gave up…until recently when new data suggested that the ships may be hiding somewhere on the moon or at least some clue to where they went might be there…or at the very least show where they went.

Around that same moment in the mobile suit hanger (built into the ship and modified for the special purpose behind their mission since older Salamis-class cruisers didn't have mobile suit hangers) the three pilots picked out for the assignment were running morning maintenance on their machines with the aid of the mechanics in the hanger to ensure their machines were fully operational.

One of the pilots was the new recruit from the academy; he was a young twenty two year old solider with blonde hair wearing a ensign Earth Federation uniform sitting in the cockpit of his GM mobile suit going over a maintenance check list.

"Hey Jerid are you finished with your maintenance?" Jerid climbed out of the cockpit before exchanging words with a slightly older pilot around the age of twenty six years of age with long red hair, blue eyes wearing an Earth Federation flight suit with the rank of Major.

"I just finished Major Mackenzie."

"Good job, get down here Jerid the commodore is calling for a meeting in the briefing room."

"On my way!" Jerid climbed out of his machine and followed the Major out of the hanger heading down the hall together until the two bumped into a young fifteen year old boy with short dark blue hair and matching color eyes. Jerid almost bumped into the boy, but he narrowly avoided him. "Hey watch where you are going!"

The boy ignored him.

"Hilda Bidan's son is wandering the ship again."

"So that's the kid with the girlish name."

Suddenly Jerid got kicked in the back as Kamille Bidan after overhearing the comment regarding his name had no intention of allowing the young mobile suit pilot to get away with it. Jerid turned around and began fighting back with Christina Mackenzie trying to break it up. The young woman wasn't having much luck, but the arrival of two hanger works finally managed to break up the scuffle between the two.

"I should have maybe mentioned that his mother wanted me to pass along that he hates people making comments about his name." Chris said as the two hanger workers dragged Kamille off to a detention cell to cool off.

"Now you tell me, but what's wrong with him attacking a soldier of the Earth Federation like that?"

"Let's just say he has issues with his family."

"He's one of those kinds of people."

"Kinda"

The two continued down the hall until they entered the pilot briefing room; after they entered they found the third pilot of their group already present and accounted for speaking with the Mobile Suit Pilot Coordinator of the ship as well as acting chief medical officer a young woman who was about twenty four years of age with medium length blonde hair, a fair complexion and blue eyes wearing a Earth Federation uniform with the rank of Major on it as well.

Her friend and the last pilot of the group was around twenty three years old with short curly brown hair with blue eyes and a slightly tan-color complexion wearing a black leather jacket with a white shirt underneath and dark blue jeans with matching white shoes.

After the pilots took their seats Blex arrived in the room prompting everyone to stand at attention and salute him.

"At ease" Blex ordered as he gestured for everyone to be seated. "Now we may finally have a lead to follow on. We have detected an odd energy signature, its faint, but it's there directly under us. We believe we can reach it by using a cave entrance said to be up ahead at the base of a nearby crater so we intend to investigate it. I want all pilots ready for launch in thirty minutes we'll begin with launching Jerid and Chris first to scout ahead of the ship while we'll keep Amuro back just in case on standby. Any questions" Blex inquired.

"Yes sir, are we sure we have something?"

"So far our sensors say there is something odd down there and we intend to check it out since it was near this site was where the fleeing Zeon remnants were last heard from. But let me remind you all that if we do find something or anything that might provoke a battle our main objective are to find what happened to the Zeon remnants and where they disappeared to…nothing more."

"But if Zeon is really hiding here…how they could have they survived this long on the Moon without alerting the Federation."

"We'll hopefully find out Major Mass as soon as we complete our investigation. You are all dismissed, all pilots to your stations."

An hour later the Iceland descended down the crater where it came across a very large tunnel that led deep underground. It was wide enough for a very large battleship in the company of a few smaller vessels to enter. The vessel proceeded slowly into the cavern, but not before Jerid and Chris was launched in their RGM-79C GM Kai mobile suits to scout ahead for the Iceland.

Twenty minutes later after entering the cavern a black and red ship with tints of blue and gold on it moved up to the entrance of the cavern…it was a Pegasus class refit model, more specifically it was the MSC-07/LMSD-78 Albion. Sitting on the bridge of the ship was one very familiar captain, now he was acting field commander of the new Earth Federation anti-insurgency task force dubbed the Titans.

"Captain Om…the Iceland is deep underground we can pursue and carry out our mission." The helmsman suggested.

"As much as I would like to personally eliminate Blex myself, but our orders are to make this look as much like an accident as we can. Prepare all weapons fire into that cave…I want it completely sealed nothing gets in or out." Bask Om ordered as a dark smile crossed his face.

"Yes sir…prepare all weapons, locking on" The crewmember sitting at the weapon control station said.

"Open fire!" Bask shouted with a smile as the Albion fired every weapon in their arsenal into the mouth of the cavern ensuring a cave in to completely seal the Iceland and its crew inside.

Deep underground the Iceland traveled down the tunnel for almost an hour until they reached a very large open cavern where on the ground the skeletons of winged whales laid before them. But above them at the center was a giant tear in the fabric of space and time.

"Jerid are you seeing this?" Chris asked surprised by the chamber they were in.

"Yeah looks like some kind of graveyard, but what's with that black hole?"

From the bridge of the Iceland; Blex and Sayla Mass were both equally impressed and surprised by they had discovered. From the entrance of the bridge a certain young man was standing there looking at the scene before him. Kamille was a little fascinated by the graveyard wondering why whales-like creatures that lived in space required wings.

Soon their moment was ruined as an Earthquake within the turn started to cause large rocks and very large stalagmites to fall from the ceiling above, a few missed the ship as the weapon turrets of the vessel began firing to deal with the falling rocks. Chris and Jerid had no problem dodging and evading them as well as used their beam rifles to shoot anything that might hit them.

Sadly the Iceland wasn't as mobile as Amuro was quickly launched to help the ship, but by the time he was launched a large stalagmite impaled the bow of the ship before a second one grazed the starboard side.

"Sir we have sustained serious damage on the bow of the ship…we are losing control of the engines."

"All hands abandon ship." Blex ordered.

"Sir weapons fire detected behind us at the cavern entrance."

"We're being sealed in! Everyone out" Blex shouted as he had a strong feeling which party was responsible.

As the ship began to go down; Blex, Sayla and Kamille being dragged along with a few members of the bridge crew hurried to the nearest escape craft located near the bridge.

As a second explosion shook the ship, Blex and everyone from the bridge piled into the escape pod before it was launched to escape the sinking ship, it was a moment later when a second large stalagmite fell on the bridge of the ship effetely sinking it as it exploded. Amuro quickly came to their aid as he protected the escape pod from falling rocks while brining it closer to Chris and Jerid.

"Did anyone else make it?" Blex asked on an open communication channel.

"I am sorry sir; no one else was able to make it to the escape pods." Chris reported sadly.

"Damn you Jamitov." Blex cursed under his breath. "So this was it, you pushed for this to get rid of me in a convenient accident."

"Sir this whole place is coming down."

"It's likely the entrance has been sealed. What about that rip behind us?" Sayla suggested.

"We don't know anything about it?" Blex noted.

"Maybe, but I feel something familiar behind it."

"With all due respect sir we need to make a decision now otherwise we'll be buried alive in here." Chris pointed out.

Blex saw the ceiling beginning to crumble and knew they were right. "Very well into the rip and let's hope our luck holds on the other side."

Without wasting a moment the mobile suits with Amuro taking the escape craft through the rip following Chris and Jerid, the group escaped just in time as the entire ceiling of the cavern came crashing down. Meanwhile outside the cave as Bask Om watched with a pleasant smile on his face as their sensors detected that their attempts to seal the cave ended up bringing it down on top of the Iceland.

"Are there any life signs?"

"There is nothing that we can detect sir, they are likely either buried very deep or were killed."

"Excellent send out some teams to cover up our presence here, then we're returning to base. Now one of the biggest voices of anti-Titan statements has been silenced and buried along with a few other inconvenient troublemakers."

A/N: not quite what I had originally had in mind, but it will do. Guess who they'll run into on the other side.


	3. Chapter 3 Family and Rival Reunion

Chapter 3

Family and Rival Reunion

Deep under the moon's surface inside a mobile laboratory comprised of several mobile components linked together that included living quarters and research labs also complete with a small mobile suit hanger built right next to it. Char Aznable was in his office looking over the reports from the scientists he was accompanying to study the rift that linked this world and the Earth where he and others from Axis had originated from.

Taking another slip from his coffee cup as he reviewed a report on the most recent readings they were receiving from the rift the Red Comet got an emergency call.

"What is it Simon?"

"Sir the sensors are picking up something from within the rift…we believe something is coming through."

"Any idea what it could be?"

"No sir"

Suddenly Char sensed a familiar presence; in fact he felt two of them…both were very familiar to him, leaving the Red Comet stunned with surprise at the approach of the two he felt coming.

"Impossible…Amuro and Sayla…it can't be!" Char pushed the button on his desk before speaking with a mechanic. "Get my mobile suit prepared for launch and have the mobile suits deployed…they are ordered to disable any machines or threats that come through."

"Yes sir"

Minutes later as Amuro, Chris, Jerid and the others aboard the escape craft came through the rift they arrived in a cavern identical to the one they had been in, but with less whale skeletons on the ground. However they also noticed that there were mobile suits present, DSSD UT-1D Civilian Astray DSSD Custom. The model was based off of the Orb Union Astray mobile suit, but was heavily customized and fitted for use by the DSSD with upgraded sensor suite built into the head, which was protected by a visor designed to stop impacts with space debris. Also the machine's thrusters utilize an electromagnetic propulsion system which was a predecessor to the Voiture Lumiere propulsion system.

Although it wasn't built as a combat mobile suit it was still capable of using a beam pistol and shield should the need arise.

"What kind of mobile suits are those?" Jerid asked his fellow pilots as he was searching through the database looking for a file or reference about the machines they were facing. "I got nothing on them."

"They don't look like military machine…there are no weapons on them." Chris pointed out.

"Can we communicate?" Blex inquired.

"We're trying sir…I can't find the frequency so I am going to try the international distress channel." Chris replied, but Amuro and Sayla were speechless as their newtype senses alerted them to an approaching presence that was very familiar to them.

"It can't be" Amuro began as Sayla was thinking the same thing.

"It's not possible."

"What's wrong Sayla?" Blex asked, but soon the mobile suits detected the approach of another mobile suit. The Divine Testament Gundam stopped a short distance away standing before them as Char was now certain that the two presences he felt were in fact both his rival Amuro Ray and Sayla Mass his sister. Char readied himself for a possible battle as he ordered the DSSD mobile suits to back away before attempting communications.

"It's a Gundam" Amuro commented.

"A red one too" Jerid added "But I haven't seen a machine like that either. Where on Earth are we?"

"You are not on the moon you are familiar with anymore…the rift you found is a passageway through time and space that leads into a completely different universe identical to our own, but considerably different."

"That voice…is that you…Char Aznable!" Amuro demanded.

"No way the Red Comet here?" Jerid exclaimed as Chris including Blex and Sayla were all surprised to be confronted by none other than Char Aznable.

"I am glad you remember me Amuro Ray…I am also surprised Sayla is with you." Char replied as he lowered his weapons. "I have no intention of fighting you, but I came merely because I was concerned a firefight might have broken out between you and the researchers I am overseeing."

"So what exactly do you have in mind?" Chris demanded jumping in on the conversation.

"Right as I declared I have no interest in fighting you, but if the Neo Zeon forces that actually have jurisdiction over these caverns and I doubt they'll take well to finding out that Federation Forces have discovered the rift. I can help all of you escape…but I'll need your full cooperation."

"Do you expect us to trust you?" Jerid shouted.

"What choice do we have?" Blex admitted. "We obviously can't go back the way we came."

After a brief, but tense standoff…Char welcomed the group to the mobile research lab set up down the passageway a safe distance from the rift. Once he disembarked from his machine Char made his way to a conference room where he was planning to speak with Amuro, Blex, Chris, Sayla, and Jerid while everyone else with them will be allowed to relax in the lounge.

The Red Comet took some deep breaths preparing for the coming reunion while he was having one of those moments where he amused himself with thought that this was one day that he should have stayed in bed. Minutes later the door opened and a DSSD employee showed the men into the room with Amuro entering first followed by Blex and everyone else. Char sat at the head of the rectangular shaped table while Amuro sat to his left and Blex sat across from the hero of the One Year War. Jerid sat to Amuro with Chris sitting to the young pilot's right while across from them Sayla sat next to Blex.

"Thank you for accepting my offer to discuss this matter peacefully."

"I didn't think you had any reason to attack us?" Amuro mentioned.

"Of course, your arrival here took me by surprise. My group the DSSD otherwise called the Deep Space Survey and Development Organization is here to study the rift that linked our world with this one providing a passageway through time and space itself. However this area is controlled by the Zeon Remnant Forces that has also used this rift to escape the Federation and rebuild their nation. Now they are on par with the other superpowers of this world with the nations of the Orb Union, the PLANT space colonies and the Atlantic Federation."

"I never heard of those nations." Chris commented.

"Of course not…although this Earth is identical to our own, but it's an alternative universe, believe me I had a hard time swallowing it when I first came here."

"What exactly does the DSSD do?" Jerid asked.

"As our name implies we are a neutral organization established for the purpose of advancing the frontier from survey and development of regions beyond the orbit of Mars including aiming for the advancement of nations, religions and races." Char explained.

"An interesting organization" Sayla noted.

"I am curious what exactly where you all doing in the cavern where the rift leading into world was?" Char inquired.

"We were sent on a mission to investigate and try to figure out where did the survivors of the Delaz Fleet and the Axis Advance Fleet disappear to, it is something that has become a mystery to the Federation, but recently we had supposedly received new data that it was somewhere on the moon since it was the fleet's last known location before they vanished. However I think the mission was nothing more than a ploy for the Titans to get rid of me when they attempted to bury us alive in that cavern." Blex explains.

"I see a lot has happened on Earth since I was last there."

"Indeed" Blex answered.

"Then the cavern on the other side has been sealed off."

"Yes we had no choice, but to enter the rift to escape the cave-in." Chris replied.

"I see…this leaves me in a dangerous position. I'll have to smuggle all of you out of here, should Neo Zeon's leaders discover your presence here it could make things not only difficult for the DSSD, but for all of you as well."

"I understand, but what do you have in mind."

"We have a transport ship…I can't smug your machines and escape pod out of here, but we can at least get all of you out of here and to safety until we can figure something out. The only other rift we know of that could possibly send you all home is in the asteroid belt."

"How can we trust you?" Jerid demanded.

"Then how do you plan to fight your way through a heavily armed garrison of Zeon soldiers with only a few machines while protecting an escape pod. Even if you got pass them there is the Lightning Count to consider."

"The Lightning Count" Sayla asked.

"Zeon's greatest ace pilot…he is famous throughout the earth and space as the most dangerous and strongest mobile suit pilot alive. Even I doubt I can defeat him…he is a very powerful newtype, one of the most powerful I have ever encountered. He is here at the base this weekend overlooking mining operations, so if you attempt to escape he'll intercept you and chances are most of you will be destroyed before you could escape."

"He wouldn't by chance have piloted a machine called Epyon?" Blex asked.

"Yes…it's his preferred unit. How did you know about Epyon?"

"Because two years ago a unit known as Epyon saved the survivors of the Delaz Fleet and wiped out most of the Federation pursuit forces."

"One man did that?" Jerid exclaimed in surprise.

"But I thought the official report was that it was another fleet that came to their aid." Chris mentioned.

"Officially yes, but unofficially the truth of what happened was very different."

"I see" Chris replied while Amuro and Sayla didn't sense any lie or deception behind Char's words not especially since they both felt a powerful newtype high above them.

"From here where are you going to take us?" Amuro asked.

"I'll take all of you to our orbital space station where we conduct our research and development projects. From there you'll be transported to the Orb Union. I have acquaintances among their leaders so we can work something out with them until we can either reopen the cavern on the other side or arrange for another way for all of you to return."

"Then I guess we'll do as you suggest." Blex said after looking around the table and saw that no one could disagree…it was their best course of action, at least for now.

Four days later in another part of space, more specifically at Largepoint Four a shuttle from the Orb Union had just arrived at the new PLANT colony of Armory One located near the old abandoned colonies drifting nearby. After all docking procedures were complete a special group of passengers were let off the shuttle taking a secure boarding tube that led them to another part of the spaceport reserved for military personnel.

A pair of ZAFT soldiers led the special delegation down the hall with the group consisting of one certain short blonde haired eighteen year old woman wearing a white and purple political uniform worn by Orb's top political leaders followed by two men. One was a young eighteen year old teenager wearing a black and white leather jacket with a green turtle neck long-sleeve shirt underneath with gray paints and matching black shoes. He had short/medium length dark blue hair and green eyes which were currently hidden by a pair of large sunglasses that he was currently wearing in a rather weak attempt to hide his identity.

The last member of their group was an older man with short brown hair with blue eyes, but he too also hid his eyes and most of his face behind a pair of large sunglasses. The Gundam pilot was dressed in a black turtle-neck sweater with a gray collar jacket and matching pants with black shoes.

"Do you think that is the appropriate attire, tell me you brought at least one dress with you?" The younger bodyguard asked.

"What does it matter what I wear, don't you think this is good enough?" Cagalli Yula Athha replied.

"For something like this a little bit of acting never hurts. You know this already, look you don't need to pretend to be somebody you are not, but you don't want them to think you are an amateur. Although this is an unofficial visit, never forget for a moment that you are now a ruler of Orb."

"However the problem is that she is an amateur…she has never done something like this before." Heero Yuy commented.

"Heero" Athrun Zala scolded.

"It's the truth…even Zechs knew letting her go up here was a bad idea since Gilbert Dullindal from what he has heard is quite a political leader so you'll be standing before someone clearly far more experienced at their job."

"That's enough you two I got a job to do and I'll do it." Cagalli said snapping at both of them.

The group didn't speak another word as they passed over the general public section of the space port passing over them on a bridge that ran above the general crowd below. As they did Athrun turned his head for a moment and saw a trio of teenagers that caught his attention. One had short light green hair with yellow eyes dressed in a white collar jacket wearing an odd leather plum like-vest underneath along with tan pants and brown shoes.

The next boy in their group had light blue hair, but his was a bit longer than the first guy. He had blue eyes wearing a dark brown outfit with long grayish tan-sleeves and leather armbands and boots. The last member of the trio was a young girl with short blonde hair, pinkish red eyes wearing a white and blue dress with her shoulders exposed with high-heel shoes. Athrun turned away when the girl turned and noticed him.

After the group boarded an elevator that led down into the PLANT habitant, Cagalli began to engage in a conversation with the PLANT military officers accompanying them.

"So tomorrow's ceremony will mark the first launching of a ship since the war has ended" Cagalli said before she added. "They are well aware of what I came here to discuss. Strange they are holding the ceremony now in this place."

"That may be true, but remember we did request to meet with them at their earliest convenience Representative Athha. I suspect Chairman Dullindal chose this location for our benefit, perhaps he thought it would attach less attention than a visit to the PLANT homeland." Athrun reasoned while Heero silently agreed that was a plausible reason. Suddenly the elevator entered the main habitant area as a bright light shinned through the elevator. Athrun didn't mind much, but Cagalli was actually impressed with seeing what the interior of a PLANT colony looked like while it was also Heero's first time inside a PLANT colony…but there was no change in his expression.

Around that same time another shuttle was arriving at the space port…it was a purple streamlined craft with the Zeon emblem on the one of the wings. Standing at the end of the boarding tube after it finished connecting to the side of the shuttle the doors opened were a pair of ZAFT soldiers and a ZAFT military officer. After the airlock finished opening a young eighteen year old woman stepped out wearing a black and dark purple dress uniform with gold lined shoulder pads and a leather breastplate lined with gold attached with a long flowing black and purple cape stepped out. On her left shoulder was an arm band that bore the Zeon emblem as well. She had light blue eyes and a unique short-pink hair style along with a pale skin complexion.

"On behalf of Chairman Gilbert Dullindal welcome to Armory One Lady Haman Karn, please follow me."

Haman Karn acting regent of Axis and Neo Zeon followed the ZAFT soldiers as her two bodyguards followed her off her ship as they were lead through the spaceport where they were also meeting with Chairman Dullindal.

At that moment outside the colony an invisible ship lurked nearby. No one was aware of the danger the vessel posed or its mission the commander of the craft had every attention of carrying out to the letter.

A/N: damn this was a tough chapter…mostly because I was working on the reunion between Sayla, Amuro and Char. I was trying to make it as believable a situation as possible considering, but now that all of the players are almost here the next chapter we will introduce the new Neo for the story along with a Gundam-jacking lol. Thanks for the reviews so far…they are always appreciated. :)


	4. Chapter 4 Political and Feminine Tension

Chapter 4

Political and Feminine Tension

On the top floor of the main administration building of the Armory One military base; Cagalli, Heero and Athrun were led through a door where a conference room with a large window next to a round table and a pair of leather couches sat opposite of the other with the table between them. Inside the room were members of political officer with a few military officers present in the room along with the man Cagalli had journeyed to the PLANTs to meet.

"Princess welcome…I am glad to see you have made it here safely. Thank you for coming all this way to meet here." Heero and Athrun bowed respectfully to the Supreme Chairman Gilbert Dullindal who graciously returned it before gesturing for Cagalli to sit with him by the window. "How are things in your homeland, I understand many issues were resolved when you became a representative. As a friend I am delighted, and to be perfectly honest a little envious as well."

After the two leaders took their seats across from one another Cagalli spoke while Heero and Athrun stood nearby.

"There is still a lot of work to be done."

"Yes, but I have to wonder what matter could be so urgent than you would rush out here unannounced despite your obligations? Our ambassador has told us you wish to discuss something with us, something complex."

"Personally I don't believe it's not all that complicated. But it's just that I haven't received a clear response from your nation on an issue I feel is very important. The question is do you consider this a complex problem?"

"What do you mean princess?"

"I am talking about the technology and human resources that left Orb as a result of the war. Our nation has made repeated requests to stop applying them to military projects. Is there a reason you haven't responded to our requests until today?" Cagalli inquired.

"Perhaps I imagine is because the PLANTs have grown tiresome of such childish requests and decided to confront you directly on the matter." Haman Karn said as she approached the two leaders after entering the room a few moments ago surprising Athrun while Heero kept a stoic expression on his face. A third leather chair was put out between the two leaders by two ZAFT soldiers before the regent of Axis took her seat.

"I am glad to see you have arrived Lady Haman Karn."

"What are you doing here?" Cagalli demanded.

"That was hardly appropriate…in my country we exchange a pleasant hello before asking questions. I am here as a guest for tomorrow's ceremony seeing that ZAFT and Zeon are very close allies, but I have also been asked to attend this excuse for a meeting. Your nation's request for ZAFT to stop using human resources that left Orb as a result of what happened during the war is simply absurd. The people who have come to make a living here at the PLANTs must take a living somehow, you can't ask people to simply abandon their careers all because a country under pressure from the Atlantic Federation says so."

"How dare you…you fail to see this could create an arms race."

"You fail to see your own inexperience…I haven't had anyone from your nation complain to us about former employees of your Morgenroete Corporation now working at Axis in military projects so what makes the PLANTs so special?" Haman pointed out with a shy smile.

"Now ladies may I suggest we retire to a more enjoyable and open atmosphere. I was planning on giving the princess a tour of the base would you like to join us Lady Haman?" Gilbert suggested when he noticed the princess was less than pleased with Haman's remarks.

"It will be my pleasure to attend."

As the group left the room to begin the tour around the base another event was happening outside the base itself and in the adjoining town's marketplace. The three teenagers Athrun saw earlier were walking through the town while Sting Oakley and Auel Neider were taking point while the last member of their group Stellar Loussier was lagging behind, but stopped to look at dresses on display at a fashion store.

The two men noticed they were one member short when they stopped to look over their shoulders just in time to see Stellar start twirling around and dancing with an invisible partner.

"What is she doing?" Auel inquired.

"Playing the part of a dizzy airhead…why don't you try it? It might be fun?" Sting suggested.

"No way" Auel replied as he and his partner continued onward.

Stellar continued her waltz around the store window happily without a care in the world until she unknowingly bumped into someone almost falling over, but a young man with short unkempt black hair, red eyes wearing a white long-sleeve shirt with a sleeveless light tan sweat jacket with a hood on the back with matching paints and black shoes.

The ZAFT test pilot dropped the stuff he had brought on his shopping trip with his friend to catch the young woman before she could accidently fall on her face.

"Are you ok" Shinn Asuka asked as he didn't realize at the time that he was holding Stellar by her bosom.

Without a word Stellar roughly brushed him off before running to catch up with her comrades with Shinn watching.

"You grabbed her rack didn't you?" Yolant Kent commented with a shy smile as Shinn realized which part of her body he had grabbed her by feeling deeply embarrassed by the incident. "You lucky pervert!"

"I didn't…really!" Shinn said trying to defend himself, but when his friend began to walk away Shinn knelt down and recovered all of the items that had fallen out of his bag before hurrying to catch up with his fellow crewmate as he walked off. "Yolant"

At that moment somewhere in the debris belt, a group of ZAFT ships…all of them Nazca class vessels had gathered near the ruins of Junius Seven. Aboard one certain ship of particular interest; Paptimus Scirocco was seated behind his desk in his cabin dressed in a custom white and black ZAFT uniform reserved for the highest rank members of the military with a FAITH pin on his collar while three men stood before him wearing regular green ZAFT flight suits.

"Gentlemen I have brought you everything you'll need to begin Operation Meteor…this time it will be done as it was meant to be." Paptimus declared with a smile as the leader of the men intending to carry out the operation Sato stepped forward and saluted him.

"Thank you sir for all of your assistance"

"Are your men really prepared to go all the way…without our ships here it's unlikely all of you will survive?" Paptimus pointed out.

"We are prepared to see this through to the bitter end sir."

"I see…I'll pass word of the operation onto our loyalists' factions and see to it everything else will begin the moment the true operation meteor is a success. It will take some time to finish mounting the Flare Motors on the colony remains, but once we are finished I'll depart with the ships."

"We appreciate that a great deal Commander Paptimus sir."

"Not at all I am sure Supreme Chairman Zala would greatly approve of our actions."

"We appreciate your words Commander." One of Sato's fellow pilots commented.

"Thank you…now I'll head out with you to oversee preparations to send Junius Seven towards Earth." Paptimus Scirocco said as he proceeded to follow Sato and his company of pilots out of the cabin, but none of them noticed the smile that appeared on the newtype's face.

Back at Armory One; Gilbert Dullindal and a company of soldiers and bodyguards were leading Haman, Heero, Athrun and Cagalli through the base showing them the mobile suits that were inside the hangers around them. As they went about exploring the base the Supreme Chairman of the PLANTs began a conversation with the princess of Orb.

"You're a woman of courage princess and you know what it is like to pilot a mobile suit in a real battle and you are the successor to the lion of Orb. Lord Uzumi defended the ideals of his nation to the end; he refused to bow to pressure." Gilbert stopped in front of an open hanger as did the rest of the group allowing Athrun and Heero to see a hanger full of ZAFT's new ZAKU mobile suits copied from the Axis Zeon design."So Princess how should we act considering the current state of the world? I am sure you already know the answer to that question."

"We will protect and maintain the ideals of our nation…it's as simple as that."

"You will not attack another nation; you will not allow another nation to attack you and will not intervene in the conflicts of other nations." Gilbert said as he listed out Orb's policy.

"That's right"

"Then we believe in the same noble sentiments, if possible that would be the best way. But it is not possible without power. I am sure that even you, no you in particular can understand this princess. Is that the reason Orb maintains full military facilities?"

"Please do me a favor and stop calling me princess?" Cagalli requested.

"Representative Athha, please forgive me." Gilbert said politely with a bow before the group moved on.

"However I have to wonder…what exactly are you afraid of Representative? Pressure from the Atlantic Federation, are they accusing you of giving us military aid contrary to the treaty?" Gilbert said as Haman noticed Cagalli's fist tighten at the mention of it. "But of course there is no evidence that you have done so…it's common knowledge that we welcomed refuges from Orb with open arms after the battle for your homeland. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that they had to make a living here applying their technical skills…what else could they do?"

"But still too much strength will still invite another war" Cagalli finally said stepping ahead of the Chairman stopping the whole group once again.

"No princess…strength is a necessity there will always be conflict."

Suddenly the alarms around the base began going off which was soon followed by an explosion from hanger six which blew the doors wide open quickly followed by beam energy fire into the hanger across from hanger six destroying the hanger and the mobile suits inside. Three new Gundam models stepped out from the hanger six…quickly recognized by everyone with exception of the Supreme Chairman's guests.

"Chaos, Gaia and Abyss"

"Auel, Stellar take out the hangers…before they send their mobile suits after us." Sting ordered.

"Stellar you take the left"

"Understood" Stellar replied as she transformed her ZGMF-X88S Gaia Gundam into its Quadruped mode as it began attacking the other mobile suit hangers nearby while Auel in his new ZGMF-X31S Abyss Gundam as he bombarded the hangers near his current location with his machine's M68 dual cannons while their leader Sting in his new Gundam the ZGMF-X24S Chaos attacked a few mobile suit hangers with a volley of AGM141 Firefly guided missiles.

"Someone has hijacked the new mobile suits from hanger six." A soldier carrying a radio said informing the chairman of the situation.

"What" Gilbert exclaimed while Cagalli asked.

"New models"

Suddenly an explosion nearby drew their attention as the group saw the Abyss Gundam using its chest mounted beam cannon to destroy another hanger.

"That's" Athrun began, but his sentence tailed off leaving Cagalli to finish for him.

"A Gundam"

"Get them to the shelter, where's Evans?" Gilbert said as Evans approached Cagalli, Heero, Haman and Athrun while requesting for the four to follow him.

"Come with me" Evans asked as Haman, Cagalli along with Athrun and Heero in tow followed the ZAFT soldier through the base, but after passing by four hangers the group was cut off by the Chaos Gundam and a GINN fighting one another, but Sting impaled the ZAFT machine with its beam saber sending the mobile suit falling to the ground before it exploded. Haman ducked in an open hanger while Cagalli, Athrun and Heero ducked inside a smaller building across from her…however Evans was caught in the explosion killing him.

As Haman took a different route to escape; Cagalli and Heero led by Athrun hurried back the way they came, but this time they were cut off by the Gaia Gundam in its quadruple mode. The group was forced to take refuge behind a supply truck as a DINN flying overhead began shooting at the Gaia Gundam. After Stellar moved out of the DINN's line of fire…the group enjoyed a brief moment of peace.

"Damn it!" Athrun cursed.

"Why…why is this happening?" Cagalli asked as Stellar leapt into the air and sliced the attacking DINN in half with her machine's beam blades sending one half of the flying mobile suit's remains crashing into a nearby hanger causing a ZAKU warrior to fall backwards out of the crumbling hanger and in front of the supply truck.

"Athrun"

"I am alright" Athrun assured Cagalli before noticing the ZAKU warrior as the Gaia Gundam transformed back into its mobile suit mode and began shooting at the base's defenders. "Come on" Athrun insisted as he led Cagalli to the open cockpit of the ZAKU warrior. "Get in"

"What?" A confused Cagalli asked, but Athrun didn't waste time as he picked up Cagalli before hopping inside the machine.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Heero asked before Athrun closed the cockpit.

"I won't let her die here."

"Understood…I'll find a machine I can use and provide cover."

"Alright…I'll get Cagalli out of here then."

Heero hopped off the ZAKU and rushed off trying to find a machine of his own to use while Athrun activated the ZAKU warrior after running a quick system check to make sure the machine was still in good working order. Once the machine was fully operation Athrun brought the ZAKU up to its feet, but it wasn't long before the Gaia Gundam noticed the ZAKU.

Realizing he was in danger, Athrun maneuvered and dodged Stellar's shots before ramming the Gaia Gundam with its spiked shield knocking off its feet, but the black machine regained its balance…however its beam rifle was knocked from its hands forcing the pilot to draw the Gundam's beam saber. In response Athrun drew the ZAKU's beam tomahawk before engaging in melee combat with the Gaia Gundam.

The ZAKU was successfully in fending off any killing blows, but the machine was quickly being overpowered by the Gaia as it was being pushed further back by the black machine despite Athrun's best attempts to defend himself. However their situation didn't improve as the Chaos Gundam arrived on the scene intending to give Stellar some back up.

The Chaos Gundam charged and with one swipe of its beam saber it managed to hack off the ZAKU's left arm leaving its shield intact, but before Sting could continue his attack his machine got hit with a roundhouse kick from another ZAKU unit. The green machine bent down and picked up Athrun's beam tomahawk before drawing its own from its shield ready to fight the two Gundams.

"Athrun get Cagalli out of here…I'll handle them." Heero demanded as fought off the Gaia Gundam by dual-wielding the two beam tomahawks using them both in defense and offense along with a below the belt kick to the black machine forcing it back.

"Don't get killed Heero!" Athrun said as he was about to leave, but came under attack from the Abyss Gundam as the ZAKU narrowly missed having its head blown off by the blue Gundam's chest mounted beam cannon.

"Three against one ZAKU and one damaged mobile suit…our situation isn't looking good."

Suddenly a volley of missiles hit the back of the Abyss Gundam knocking it forward as a small plane the Core Splendor flew over head followed by the Chest Flyer and the Leg Flyer with the Sword Silhouette pack taking up the rear. Above the fighting machine the Core Splendor linked up with the Leg Flyer before combining with the Chest Flyer and finally the Sword Silhouette to form the ZGMF-X56S/β Sword Impulse Gundam with its pilot Shinn Asuka behind the controls.

The Impulse Gundam landed in-between the two ZAKU mobile suits with its dual MMI-710 Excalibur anti-ship swords before combining them into a large dual-ended bladed weapon.

"I stand corrected…our situation has just improved in our favor." Heero commented.

"Do you guys want to start another one…another war?" Shinn Asuka shouted before he charged the Impulse Gundam straight at the Gaia Gundam. Stellar narrowly avoided having the head of her machine taken off by one deadly swipe of the Gundam's dual ended weapon while the other end as the blade came back around struck the shield of the Gaia Gundam hard enough to knock Stellar backwards into the air while the black machine countered attacked with a light spray of its CIWS weapons, but they didn't do any good against the machine's phase shift armor.

"What the hell…is that thing a Gundam too?" Sting said as he was trying to search for data on it, but couldn't find any. "Damn it there is no data on this thing."

"I thought there were only supposed to be three machines? That thing isn't in our plan?" Auel pointed out. "It looks like Kurei screwed up."

"Well it's going to be a problem if that thing comes after us."

The Chaos Gundam charged to join the Gaia Gundam attacking the Impulse as Auel gleefully noted. "So you're planning on taking its head as a gift huh…now that sounds like a cool idea."

Meanwhile outside Armory One a cloaked ship was lurking nearby as it was silently stalking an unsuspecting Nazca Class ship. The ship was an Earth Alliance ship concealed by Mirage Colloid cloaking technology called the Girty Lue. Seated on the bridge next to the captain of the ship dressed in a black Earth Alliance uniform wearing a black helmet-like mask lined with red; this young man had shoulder length black hair, but for a colonel in the Earth Alliance military and field commander of 81st Independent Maneuver Force he seemed rather young. But that didn't mean he didn't earn his ranks because this man was a leading officer in Phantom Pain, but had considerable skills and abilities that allowed him to get where he was at today. His hands were covered in white gloves while he reached with one hand to pull back his right arm sleeve to look at his watch. With a slight turn of his lips he looked up from his watch and said.

"Let us proceed…discreetly."

"Yes Colonel Gungnir." The crew member went to work. "Gottfried 1 and 2 activated." The bridge crew member said as another spoke up from his station that was soon followed by a third crewmember.

"Load Corintoss into missile firing tubes 1 through 8."

"Izawa and Harada, please proceed to the catapult. Sven, Shams and Mudie get ready to launch next."

"Aim the main cannons at the forward portside of the Nazca-class. Shut down the Mirage Colloid concurrently when we begin firing. I want engines at full power the second the Mirage Colloid deactivation begins. You may fire when ready at anytime." The Colonel said as he turned to the Captain of the Girty Lue Ian Lee as he commanded.

"Gottfried cannons…open fire!"

The Girty Lue's Mirage Colloid deactivated at the very moment their cannons fired upon a ZAFT Nazca Class ship allowing them to launch a completely successful surprise attack on ZAFT forces. As ZAFT vessels were being picked off after getting caught completely off guard while men in the spaceport control room were scrambling as reports of an unknown ship had suddenly appeared in their airspace was attacking them while at that moment one of four ZAFT captains present inside the command center began giving orders.

"The Herschel has been hit!"

"We have detected missiles approaching the Fourier, 18 of them coming at us." A ZAFT personnel member announced as a second one had another announcement.

"Unidentified ship detected. Location...Number: 1, Orange 24, Mark 8-Bravo Distance: 2300."

"In a place like that?" one of the four ZAFT captains asked as the other two threw in their own comments.

"Mirage Colloid"

"Is it the Earth Alliance?"

"Searching library for thermal patterns; no match found!" a ZAFT personnel member called out from his station, upon hearing that answer a captain among the group of gathered officers shouted out some orders.

"Intercept it! Send out the ships! The mobile suits, too!"

Back on the Girty Lue as a nearby ZAFT Nazca class ship exploded into a large fireball another ZAFT ship was approaching. "After the mobile suits launch; turn starboard twenty degrees. Aim the main cannons at the Nazca-class coming towards us. Don't get hit by their return fire!" Colonel Kurei Gungnir commanded as the men on the bridge were quick at carrying out his orders.

Inside the launch catapult for the Girty Lue; a new machine based from the Buster Gundam stepped onto the catapult ready for launch as its pilot Shams Couza was ready to launch in his GAT-X103AP Verde Buster after the two GAT-01A2R+P202QX Slaughter Dagger IWSP mobile suits launched.

"Shams Couza, Verde Buster taking off!"

In the second catapult a new and upgraded design of the Duel Gundam was ready to go with its pilot and fellow Phantom Pain member Mudie Holcroft ready to launch in her GAT-X1022 Blu Duel.

"Mudie Holcroft, Blu Duel launching!"

After the two machines were launched into battle the third and final machine was loaded into the starboard-side linear catapult. Like the first two machines it was an upgraded and improved version of the Strike Gundam, but with a new equipment pack and components installed. Its pilot Sven Cal Payang was ready to go in his GAT-X105E+AQM/E-X09S Strike Noir mobile suit.

"Sven Cal Payang, Strike Noir launching!"

"How many can we kill today?" Mudie asked as she and her fellow pilots were closing in on a group of approaching GuAIZ R mobile suits.

"Keep the chatter down…we'll only to defend the ship and if required provide cover for our infiltration team." Sven reminded with a cool and calm voice as he remained focused on the task at hand.

"Come on Sven lighten up" Shams mused with a smile as the three Phantom Pain pilots began their attack on the ZAFT mobile suits ahead of them. Meanwhile the military harbor was destroyed by a surprise attack launched by a pair of black GAT-02L2+AQM/E-M11 Doppelhorn Dagger L mobile suits destroyed a Nazca class battleship along with hitting the bridges of two Laurasia class warships causing the vessels to crash into the walls of the spaceport destroying the command center with all of the officers and soldiers inside.

"We're two minutes ahead of scheduled…excellent." Kurei replied with a smile.

A/N: alright next chapter multiple battles; Heero and Shinn take on Sting, Auel and Stellar while Sven and his gang fight off one pissed off Haman Karn followed by Kurei joining the fight. Also I would like to thank Frostblaze for picking out the name of the new Neo for this story and unlike Neo from Destiny this one came to Armory One packing some serious firepower.


	5. Chapter 5 High Speed Pursuit

Chapter 5

High Speed Pursuit

Back inside Armory One; Chaos and Abyss moved in to attack the Impulse Gundam while Stellar in her Gaia Gundam was already locking horns with Shinn and his Gundam with the two engaged in a fierce melee duel.

After counterattacking with its CIWS cannons the Impulse Gundam pulled out its beam rifle and fired several shots at the fleeing machine as the Gaia Gundam fought back by changing into its quadruple mode and charging at the enemy machine, but Shinn quickly spilt his dual-ended weapon back into too before rushing at the Gaia Gundam.

Stellar stopped and dodged Shinn's deadly swipes which almost caused her to get decapitated, but Stellar had jumped into the air and fired a barrage of shots from behind the Impulse Gundam as Shinn blocked the incoming beams with his shield before throwing one sword at the enemy machine. With Stellar knocked to the ground the Chaos Gundam stepped in as it tried to cut off the Impulse Gundam's limbs with its beam claws on its feet as it landed in front of the ZAFT prototype before attacking with its beam saber, but luckily Shinn managed to block his attack and kick Sting's machine in the stomach.

As Stellar was recovering, Auel was about to attack from behind with its chest mounted beam cannon, but Heero attacked swinging both tomahawks as Auel was barely able to defend himself in time by using the over-sized shoulder components of his machine as a shield. Auel backed off as Stellar tried to face Heero, but his ZAKU rolled to the side to evade the young woman's beam saber swipe before tripping her with a sweeping kick.

Heero was about to deliver a finishing blow until Auel stepped in and stopped Heero's strike with the Abyss Gundam's glaive, but after hooking the weapon with his beam tomahawk Heero pulled forward and swiped at the machine's head causing Auel to lean the machine backwards leaving it off balance for a moment long enough for Heero to knock the Abyss Gundam on top of Stellar.

Now in a position to finish off both machines Heero was about to end the two Gundams along with their pilots, but Sting managed to intervene just in time by bombarding the area with missiles forcing Heero to back off to avoid getting hit while Abyss and Gaia remained unharmed for the most part due to their Phase Shift Armor.

"Damn who the hell is that guy?" Auel asked himself. "He's no grunt pilot."

"Attention ZAKU…your orders are to capture them…repeat your orders are to captain them." A voice was saying over the overhead speakers of Heero's ZAKU mobile suit.

"Who is this?" Heero demanded.

"This is Executive Officer Arthur Trine of the Minerva I demand that you identify yourself." Arthur asked as Heero opened communications as he locked blades with the Chaos Gundam while Shinn ended up fighting a recovered Abyss Gundam with Stellar getting back up.

"This is Special Agent Heero Yuy of the Orb Union and acting bodyguard of Chief Representative of Cagalli Yula Athha." Heero answered as activated a release lock for one of the frag grenades on the sides of his ZAKU before kicking the explosive into the chest of the Chaos Gundam while at the same time he backed away to avoid getting caught in the blast when the grenade exploded in the Chaos Gundam's face.

"H-Heero Yuy…the ace pilot of Orb" A female voice said clearly surprised by the identity of the ZAKU pilot.

"I am acting on orders to protect Representative Athha forcing me to borrow this machine to defend her. She is currently inside the second ZAKU unit nearby along with my comrade."

"Then why hasn't the Representative left the battlefield?" Arthur demanded.

"I wish I knew, but until she is safe I will continue fighting the enemy machines and I will destroy them if I must."

"Arthur, contact that other ZAKU and order them to land on the Minerva at once." A new female voice said stepping into the conversation.

"Who is that?" Heero asked.

"This is Captain Talia Gladys of the Minerva trying to get the Representative of Orb out of a dangerous situation. I have no problem with you defending them, but if it isn't too much to ask if at all possible you assist our pilot with the capture or destruction of the stolen Gundams since you are out there."

"But Captain he isn't a soldier in the military."

"I approve it" All eyes on the bridge on the Minerva turned as the captain of the ship and her EXO had an unexpected visitor. "As of this moment Heero Yuy is acting on special behalf of the homeland in this emergency situation." Gilbert Dullindal said as he stepped onto the bridge of the Minerva. "Inform the Princess she may land aboard this ship if a safe haven is what she seeks? I'll see to it the princess is looked after, but I would appreciate it if you would lend us your services to stop those Gundams from leaving this colony. I would prefer if you helped capture them, but if that cannot be done then destroy them."

"Chairman" Talia said as she was surprised by the Supreme Chairman's sudden appearance.

"I see…I'll see if I can capture, if not I'll destroy them." Heero replied as he dropped kicked the Chaos Gundam while Shinn in his Impulse Gundam was fighting the two stolen Gundams. Shinn nearly beheaded the Abyss Gundam but blocked with its glaive while Stellar was moving in for the kill, but Athrun stepped in pushing the Gaia Gundam to the ground, but Stellar fought back by cutting off the other arm of the ZAKU.

But inside the cockpit Cagalli fell onto Athrun's lap after banging her head atop of the cockpit when Athrun rammed into the enemy mobile suit to save the Impulse Pilot's life. Heero gave them some cover as he kicked another grenade at the base of the Gaia Gundam's feet with the explosion shaking the mobile suit off balance for a few moments.

"Get out of here Athrun and land on the Minerva." Heero ordered as Athrun took off fleeing to the battleship after receiving permission to land on the ship. Heero continued his fight with the Chaos Gundam while Sting took a look at the energy indicator on his control console. Suddenly a rumble shook the entire colony, but soon everyone realized that was sign that the harbor was under attack.

"Damn it…Auel, Stellar we have to go we'll be running out of power soon."

"Damn these guys!" Auel said as he and Sting took to the air and began fleeing the battlefield to escape.

Chaos, Abyss and Gaia flew higher into the air trying to head towards the harbor to escape while Impulse and the ZAKU unit piloted by Heero moved to intercept them. Gaia became vindictively focused on taking out the Impulse Gundam while Chaos and Abyss was trying to escape and shake their pursuers.

However their situation didn't improve when two more ZAKU units arrived on the scene, except one was a Phantom Command Unit painted with a white color scheme while the other was painted with a red color scheme.

"You bastards you are going to pay for this!" Lunamaria Hawke shouted as she and her comrade Rey Za Burrel began shooting at the fleeing Gundams.

"Sting, there's no end to this! I'm worried about this machine's battery." Auel said as he was blocking beam fire from the two new approaching ZAFT machines, but had to do a dodge roll to avoid the Abyss Gundam losing a leg when Heero made a fly-by trying to land a hit.

"We're retreating! Stellar! Can you shake him off?"

"I'll take him down right now!" Stellar shouted as she continued her fight against Shinn. "You...I will!" Stellar said as she continued to push herself harder to fight the Impulse Gundam certain that she could defeat it as she charged at it firing its shoulder mounted beam cannons at the Impulse Gundam before exchanging a brief passing locking of swords as they passed one another.

"We're retreating! Stop it Stellar!" Sting shouted as Stellar's only reply was.

"He's not going to beat me!"

"Stellar" Sting called out once again, but Auel decided on a different approach.

"Okay then, you can die here!"

"Auel don't!" Sting shouted as he wasn't happy that Auel used Stellar's block word. As the woman was beginning to have a type of mental break down the two enhanced humans began to have a bit of an argument. The Gaia Gundam suddenly came to a halt in mid-air leaving the Impulse Gundam and its pilot a little confused.

"I'll tell Kurei Good-bye for you!"

"Auel! You…idiot"

"There was nothing else we could do; she wouldn't stop."

Shinn tried to take this opportunity to take the Gaia down by using one of his beam boomerangs, but Sting stepped in and knocked the weapon away with its shield before shooting at the white Gundam to drive it way for a few moments.

The Gaia after stopping its battle with the Impulse Gundam it suddenly began flying away while Stellar began panicking followed by screaming in her cockpit. She was soon followed by Sting and Auel in their machines. The two men continued throwing words at one another as they made their escape. "Shut up, you idiot! That was uncalled for!"

"All's well that ends well, right?"

Meanwhile Shinn followed by Rey, Heero and Lunamaria began to purse the three stolen Gundams; back outside the colony; Kurei was watching for Sting and his team to exit the colony while aboard his ship the Girty Lue had destroyed another ZAFT Nazca class ship as it exploded into a large fireball. On the bridge a crew member announced its destruction from their station as another crew member also had another report to give to their captain and colonel.

"Nazca-class destroyed"

"We have three more GuAIZ units approaching us on the port side."

"On my mark, fire anti-beam cartridges, and at the same time accelerate 20% for ten seconds! Load Sledgehammers 1 through 4. Get ready to call back the mobile suits!" Ian ordered as the crew on the bridge went to work carrying out his orders. Kurei took a look at his watch again as he turned to a member of the bridge crew asking.

"What's their status?"

"Not yet sir" A bridge crewmember answered from his station.

"They may have failed. Though we destroyed the harbor, our targets were stored in a military armory. We would not be able to hold out in an extended battle." Ian cautioned as Kurei answered.

"I know. However, if I thought they were the type to likely fail, I would never have allowed them to carry out this mission. I'm going out to buy us some time. I'll leave the ship in your hands." Kurei rose from his chair and left the bridge to make his way to the hanger. Lee picked up a phone built into his chair and called the hanger.

"Launch deck! The Exus is going out…I want it ready before the Colonel arrives!"

Within Armory One; Impulse Gundam, two ZAKU Warriors, and a ZAKU Phantom were in hot pursuit of the Gaia, Abyss and Chaos Gundams. But unfortunately Lunamaria was forced to retreat when the thrusters of her ZAKU began to malfunction and a small explosion occurred forcing her to withdraw.

"These guys are pretty good for using stolen machines!" Shinn said as Rey had something to say to the ZAFT pilot.

"If we let them escape, it'll be all over. We have to catch them before that, no matter what!" Rey announced.

As the machines continue their pursuit Captain Talia Gladys sat in her command chair while her communication's officer Meyrin Hawke gave the captain the latest news on the condition of the colony itself. "There are gas leaks inside the colony! Over half of Armory One has been issued Level 4 evacuation orders."

"Captain, this is bad, isn't it? If they manage to get away" The ship's EXO officer named Arthur Trine began, but the Captain herself interrupted.

"There's no way I will allow that to happen. But even so...where are they from? This was a daring plan to pull off such a bold strategy."

"All the more reason we have to stop them before they can escape…if such a unit possesses Gaia, Chaos and Abyss the results could be catastrophic." Gilbert commented as Talia agreed with him.

High above them; Heero charged passed the Abyss Gundam as it made another attempt to decapitate the enemy machine, but Auel narrowly evaded it while deflecting another attack from Rey as he tried to land a few shots on the stolen machine. Ahead of them the Gaia Gundam stopped before the colony's thick walls as it began shooting at them trying to open up a way for them to escape.

As the two machines engaged the three ZAFT mobile suits leaving Stellar to work on their escape route; Kurei launched from the Girty Lue in his TS-MA4F Exus as the first thing he did was head for a group of old GINN mobile suits and one GuAIZ R machine firing their weapons at him. After effortlessly evading them the masked colonel deployed M16M-D4 Gunbarrels and quickly shot them down.

"Colonel Kurei sir" Shams said as he saw their commanding officer out on the battlefield.

"Relax you three I am just here to take part in the fun, Sting and his friends are late so we'll need to up the ante a bit. Shams you and Mudie are with me…Sven I want you to be on standby to provide escort for Sting and the others, and to eliminate any pursuers."

"Yes sir" Sven replied.

"Colonel we picked up another enemy machine emerging from the harbor." Ian Lee warned.

"Wait I thought we destroyed the military harbor."

"Actually sir this one is coming out of the civilian harbor."

Kurei and his fellow pilots looked in the direction their new attacker was coming from and were shocked to see a certain white Qubeley piloted by an angered Haman Karn approaching them.

"Well we might have a problem here…Mudie follow me in, Shams give us some cover fire to keep those bits off of us, but watch out for them yourself."

"Yes sir…you count on me."

"Let's go Mudie." Kurei ordered as the mobile armor charged straight for the approaching white mobile suit with the Blu Duel following right behind him.

"This is great…I get to follow you into battle." Mudie replied while her cheeks turned a little red.

"You fools will pay for trying to kill me" Haman declared as she deployed the bit funnels from her mobile suit as she engaged Kurei and the two Gundams in battle. Kurei charged towards the white mobile suit leading the charge as the mobile armor preformed a number of dodge rolls and evaded Haman's beam fire while the Blu Duel was following right behind the machine with Shams getting into position to provide support.

Haman maneuvered her Qubeley upwards to avoid the mobile armor as the Exus deployed its mobile weapon pods and began firing at the white mobile suit while Mudie in her machine rushed at the white mobile suit. Haman evaded the shots, but drew her beam saber just in time to lock blades with the Phantom Pain member.

The Regent of Axis kicked the Blu Duel away as beam fire rained down on her from the passing mobile weapons pods of the Exus while the Buster piloted by Shams began firing on her mobile suit, but Haman dealt with him first as she swiftly shot the arms off of his machine with two of her beam funnels before turning towards the Exus mobile armor as the rest of her funnels assaulted the craft, but the pilot was surprisingly skilled at dodging and evading them.

When the Blu Duel came charging at the Qubeley again, Haman blocked with her beam saber…but she sidestepped the enemy machine before pushing the enemy machine into the path of the Exus beam shots that took off the Blu Duel's right leg from the hip down.

"You bitch!" Mudie shouted as Haman was grinning.

"Who's next?"

Back inside the colony Shinn was trying to defeat the three machine to stop them from escaping, but as he tried to take out the Gaia Gundam which was focused on blasting its way out of the colony with both of its beam boomerangs, but the Abyss Gundam shoot them down limiting the mobile suit's weapons down to a fewer number.

Rey and Heero tried to double team the Chaos, but after saving Stellar the Abyss Gundam reinforced its comrade by trying to shoot Heero out of the sky. Shinn ultimately realized that things were starting to look bad for him.

On the Minerva as a heated battle continued to take place; Shinn's voice was heard on the intercom as he demanded "Minerva; send out the Force Silhouette!" Arthur turned to the captain with a questionable expression as he wasn't sure if it should be allowed, but the answer was already obvious to the captain.

"Permission granted. Launch it! There's no use keep it classified anymore, is there?"

"No." The Chairman replied as Meyrin began relaying the captain's orders.

"Force Silhouette; standby for launch"

In the air the Abyss and Chaos Gundams were fighting in an aerial conflict against the ZAKU Phantom and Sword Impulse Gundam and Heero's ZAKU. After trying to strike down the Chaos Gundam after Sting transformed his machine into its mobile armor mode trying to ram Rey's white machine, but Sinn intervened…unfortunately the Chaos Gundam used its beam claws to cut Shinn's sword in half.

Heero jumped the Abyss Gundam as the two machines found one another locked in melee combat again with Auel defending himself from his attacker with its beam glaive, but Heero began hammering away at the machine with his dual wielding beam tomahawks trying to get pass the Abyss's defenses, but Auel was barely holding on.

The Chaos Gundam was moving in to finish Shinn off, but Rey stepped in to cover his friend after firing a small barrage of missiles at the stolen machine to distract him allowing Shinn to switch out silhouette packs as the Force Silhouette had arrived.

"Shinn I'll cover you!" Rey called out.

"Thanks" Shinn replied as he broke away from the battle to switch packs, switching from Sword Impulse Gundam to ZGMF-X56S/α Force Impulse Gundam. His sudden change of armaments and equipment surprised Sting, Auel and Stellar as Shinn charged straight at the Chaos Gundam with his shield out and a beam saber in hand.

"No way" Sting began

"He changed his equipment!" Auel added.

"Damn we have to get out of here…Auel fire on that second of the colony with me!" Sting ordered as the Chaos Gundam in its mobile armor mode combined its weapons with the Abyss as the two machines fired all they got at the side of the colony successfully creating an escape route for them to use. The Abyss, Gaia and Chaos Gundam wasted no time escaping the scene with Shinn, Rey and Heero getting pulled out into space.

"Captain they are going out there and the enemy mothership is still out there as well." Arthur warned.

"It would be a disaster if we lose the Impulse as well. We're launching the Minerva all hands prepare for battlestations." Talia declared.

"Very well, but I am coming along I don't feel like waiting for reports."

"But Chairman I strongly advise that you disembark."

"I understand your concern, but I have a duty that goes along with my position considering the situation. I am coming with you please permit it." Gilbert asked as Talia reluctantly agreed. Meyrin began sounding the alarms as the Minerva was preparing for emergency launch. At that moment Athrun stepped onto the bridge.

"Preparing for emergency launch sequence" Meyrin said as all preparations were underway.

"What" a surprised Alex asked.

"Ah…Alex was it, where is Representative Athha?" Gilbert asked as he turned noticing the young man.

"She is at sick bay being tended to by the doctor, but I was asked to speak to you about the situation…please forgive my intrusion."

"Not at all…it's perfectly fine. The situation has forced us to launch the ship in order to recues the last prototype because it has gone out of the colony and into space where the enemy mothership is still out there."

"I see"

Athrun watched as the Minerva was being lowered through the colony's interior on an elevator that would eventually drop it outside the colony itself.

"Prepare final launch preparations…go to condition red."

"Condition red announced." Meyrin declared. "All pilots report to the briefing room, all personal please report to your stations."

Meanwhile Shinn, Rey and Heero had lost track of the stolen Gundams, but unknown to them they were being stalked by another enemy machine. Sven noticed the two mass produced mobile suits and the new model accompanying them. "This is Sven I found what had delayed Sting and his team awaiting orders."

Kurei dodged roll to avoid a hellfire of beam shots from Haman as he received Sven's message with an image showing the Impulse Gundam.

"I see that was undoubtedly my error, but one I shall have corrected. Sven take out those two mobile suits and capture the new model. I'll order the Girty Lue to give you some back up…that machine must be running low on power by now."

"Yes sir" Sven replied as he emerged from his hiding place and began approaching the three machines from behind while at the same time the Girty Lue had finished picking up Sting and his friends while the ship's captain was receiving a text message from their commander.

"A message from Colonel Gungnir: Girty Lue is to advance towards Blue 18, Mark 3-Alpha."

"Very well move the ship into position."

"Now we'll take that machine too" Kurei said with a smile as he turned his mobile armor around and fired both railguns on his craft hitting Haman's machine square in the chest, but the phase shift armor she added to the mobile suit held its own against the attack. "Then I'll eliminate you once and for all Haman Karn!"

Haman shrugged off the impact of Kurei's attack as she shot down one of his mobile weapon pods when one of them deployed their beam blades trying to take off one of the Qubeley's limbs.

"You won't take me down that easily…Kira Yamato!" Haman said as she recognized the presence of the young man she detected just as Kira had recognized her.

Meanwhile Sven entered battle between the three mobile suits as the Girty Lue was slowly approaching them. The Strike Noir shot at the mobile suits surprising them as Sven shot off the leg of Rey's ZAKU Phantom while Heero barely managed to evade in time with Shinn blocking his enemy's shots with his shield.

"Shinn this is reckless! Our machines can't operate for much longer." Rey pointed out as Heero looked at the readings on his mobile suit and realized his ZAKU was about out of power as was the Impulse Gundam. Rey wouldn't be too far away from running out of energy too as well, but the white machine had another problem as the impact of losing a limb caused an internal malfunction causing Rey's machine to suddenly loose power. "Damn it!"

"Rey what happened?" Shinn asked.

"I don't know…my machine must have suffered some internal damage from the hanger's debris falling onto it. I am a sitting duck."

"Oh great" Shinn said as their situation was looking worse by the minute, he was especially certain when he saw the enemy mothership approaching them in the distance. "That's just prefect"

However there was hope for the two pilots as the Minerva had launched and was moving to intercept the enemy mothership and hopefully save the three mobile suits. As Heero tried to engage the Strike Noir the worse happened as the ZAKU powered down causing it to come to a complete halt in space with only life-support still functioning.

Shinn was left alone to battle the Strike Noir and its pilot, but the Impulse Gundam had only 300 seconds of battery power remaining. The two machines began their battle as Sven began firing at the Impulse Gundam with his machine's dual 57mm high-energy beam rifle w/175mm grenade launcher at its foe before firing off both grenade projectiles at the Impulse scoring a direct hit.

Although its phase shirt armor weathered the blast the impact had further drained the Impulse Gundam's power as it was getting dangerously to running out of energy. Sven backed off and continued his assault forcing the Impulse Gundam on the defensive trying to force it to use up whatever remaining power it had left.

Shinn knew the situation looked bad for him, but he knew he just had to hang on for a bit longer. Using the beam rifle was out of the question, but before discarding it Shinn used his machine to draw whatever energy he could from the rifle's energy pack to give his machine a little extra energy. With his rifle out of his hand Shinn drew the Impulse's beam saber before rushing at the Strike Noir intending to engage his enemy head on.

Sven responded by discarding his two long range weapons and drawing the Noir's two MR-Q10 Fragarach 3 beam blades before locking blades with the Impulse Gundam. The two machines were engaged in a fierce battle as Sven hammered away at the Impulse Gundam with Shinn defending with his shield while trying to land whatever hits he could get, but couldn't get through Sven's defenses as the two machines matched one another blow for blow. Shinn's foe was clearly more skilled than the three pilots who had stolen the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss.

"Just a little more and then you're machine will have no more energy to fight back." Sven said to himself as he kicked the Impulse Gundam in the stomach pushing the machine away.

Suddenly Sven saw the Impulse Gundam power down as its Phase Shift Armor deactivated. Sven floated near the enemy machine for a moment as his sensors confirmed that the enemy mobile suit had powered down.

"Too easy" Sven commented before putting away one of his beam blades before using his free arm to grab onto the Impulse Gundam. Once he had a secure hold on his quarry the Strike Noir began heading back towards the Girty Lue. However as the black mobile suit was heading back to the mothership, the Impulse Gundam suddenly powered back up as Shinn quickly reactivated his beam saber and took a swing for the enemy machine's cockpit.

"Ever hear of playing possum." Shinn shouted as Sven barely escaped Shinn's death blow as the swing came dangerously close to ending his life, but instead slashed open his cockpit allowing Shinn to get a glimpse at the enemy pilot before the Impulse Gundam hurled its beam saber into right shoulder of the Strike Noir severing its arm as well as piercing its wing.

Alarms were sounding in Sven's cockpit as the Impulse managed to deliver the Strike Noir a damaging blow by playing possum to trick his enemy into letting his guard down. But that wasn't the end of the surprises Heero's ZAKU had reactivated as well as Heero drew all power reserved for life support and the energy still in one of the beam tomahawks for one more attack as Heero cleaved the Strike Noir's other arm off before losing power again after charging the enemy machine upon reactivation.

"Aren't we clever?" Sven said bitterly as he retreated from the battle as his machine had sustained serious damage from the two machines.

Having chased off Sven; Kurei was still busy fighting Haman, but their battle wasn't going any better with Haman slowly gaining the upper hand. But at that moment aboard the Girty Lue, one of their bridge personnel picked up the Minerva approaching them. "Captain we have detected a Battleship-class heat source approaching, class unknown; location Red 53, Mark 80, Delta." Ian Lee was interested as he heard about the new ship approaching them as an image of it appeared on the overhead monitor.

"That must be their new ship? Starboard 15 degrees accelerate 30%. Activate Igelstellung! What's going on with the Exus?"

As Ian was wondering what the Colonel was doing; Kurei Gungnir was busy dodging Haman's attacks as he had just ordered Shams to return to the Girty Lue for repairs after Haman's attack on him. Mudie was barely holding on under the Qubeley's brutal assault.

"So that must be ZAFT's new battleship eh?" Kurei was frustrated as the situation was no longer flowing in their favor as he admitted. "Guess I'll give you guys at ZAFT and Zeon this one. Better to leave with what we have now than to risk losing what we have gained by being too greedy. Mudie time your next attack with me we're retreating, after our attack head back to the ship."

"WHAT"

"Don't question my orders just do it." Kurei snapped. "We have lost the advantage."

"Yes sir" Mudie grumbled.

In accordance with her superior's orders Mudie and Kurei launched missiles from their machines at Haman who easily shot them down with her Qubeley's beam funnels, but upon their destruction a blinding flash lit up the space around them blinding all parties except for Kurei and Mudie who had turned their backs to the flash as they quickly fled the battlefield.

On the bridge of the Minerva; Captain Gladys observed the enemy vessel as they approached it.

"So that must be their mothership."

"Input its data into the database. From now on, we'll refer to the object as Bogey-1." Talia ordered.

"In the same sector 157, Mark 80, Alpha we have detected the Impulse and the Zaku and Rey's unit! The ZAKU and Rey's unit are powered down, but the Impulse is still barely functioning." Meyrin reported as Talia turned her head to turn her attention to the communication's officer.

"Can you contact them?"

"Negative. Radio interference is too severe. I am unable to contact them."

"Can we assist them?"

"No, but wait a moment another mobile suit is approaching the Impulse. We have a thermal match it's a Qubeley captain." Meyrin replied.

"A Qubeley…captain you don't think?"

"So Haman Karn decided to get involved as well" Gilbert commented.

"She appears to be assisting the Impulse with retrieving the ZAKU and ZAKU Phantom and are bring them to our location." Meyrin noted as her superior began issuing orders.

"We will attack Bogey-1. Shield the bridge. Course: Indigo Delta. Increase engine speed by 20%. Ready anti-beam cartridges! Arthur! What are you doing?" Talia shouted to her EXO as the bridge lowered itself into a shielded compartment.

"Yes ma'am!" Arthur hurried to his station by the helmsman. "Launcher Eight load tubes 1 through 4 with Neidharts missiles. Tristan 1 and 2, and Isolde, activate…lock on and target Bogey-1!"

"Locked on sir" A crew member shouted.

"Neidhart, fire"

The Minerva fired a swarm of missiles at the Girty Lue as Ian gave the order to evade them as on the Minerva; Talia was giving Arthur instructions to have the ship aim for the Girty Lue's engines in an attempt to disable them. On the Girty Lue the Exus made an emergency landing inside its hanger bay as a bridge crewman reported followed by the Blu Duel landing a moment later. "Exus and the Blu Duel have returned!"

"Withdraw Lee!" Kurei called from his mobile armor as Lee immediately ordered their withdrawal from the battlefield. On the Minerva a bridge personnel member informed the captain of their enemy's departure from the area. After his report the Captain turned to Meyrin wanting a status report on Shinn, Heero, Haman and Rey.

"Bogey-1, retreating! Course is yellow 71, Alpha gaining speed."

"What about Shinn, Rey and the Zaku?"

"Returning now, preparing to dock. The Qubeley is requesting permission to land as well."

"Tell them to hurry up and grant premising to the Qubeley to land we have to hurry. We will continue to engage Bogey-1…course Yellow Alpha!"

Not too long after landing; Kurei hurried onto the bridge of his ship as he took his seat next to Lee. "Please forgive me for wasting much of our time on them unnecessarily." Another report was issued to the Colonel by another member of the Girty Lue's bridge personnel members.

"Enemy ship still approaching…Blue 0, distance 110 it's closing in fast."

"It seems to be quite a fast ship. They could give us trouble if they continue pursuing us." Ian commented as a third personnel member on the bridge reported.

"Missiles approaching"

"Portside! Dodge it!" Ian shouted as Kurei had a plan how to put some distance between them and the Minerva.

"Detach both portside propellant tanks, set them to detonate twenty seconds after they are clear of the ship! Detaching them together with their arms is fine! Let's dazzle these bastards with a light show! At the same time, rise 35 degrees, portside 10 degrees, engines at maximum!"

"Yes sir!"

At that moment the colonel's plan was put into action as the vessel detached the propellant tanks with the arms still attached as they drifted towards the Minerva while the Girty Lue was picking up speed. The Captain was concerned by the sudden development as a bridge crew member informed her of what was happening in front of her.

"Bogey-1 has detached part of its hull…those parts are drifting right for us."

Talia knew what the enemy was intending to do as she shouted "Cease fire, starboard 10 degrees, engines at maximum!"

The propellant tanks exploded generating a blinding explosion that would have seriously damaged the Minerva if they had been caught in the blast. As the ship was recovering the blast Girty Lue was quickly gaining speed to get away from the Minerva while on the bridge of the ZAFT warship a personnel member was asking for reports throughout the ship.

"All stations, report your situation!"

"Burt! What's the position of the enemy ship?" Captain Gladys demanded as she turned to a bridge personnel member named Burt.

"Just a moment... it's still."

"Activate the CIWS. Fire anti-beam cartridges! They'll fire on us soon." Talia commanded, but Burt had managed to get a trace on their location.

"Found them! Red 88 Mark 6, Charlie! Distance: 500 and still moving."

"What nerve using such a tactic to get away." The Captain said as the Chairman had a few comments to add as he and the Captain had a conversation.

"They seem to be a very formidable unit."

"All the more reason we cannot allow them to escape now, image the stolen units in the hands of such a unit."

"Yes…I agree."

"From this point on, there won't be a chance for you or Representative Athha to get off, but I think that it is the ship's duty to pursue them." Talia pointed out while shooting a glance at Athrun. "What is your judgment Chairman?"

"Please do not concern yourself with me, Captain. If we leave this alone, it might cause a serious situation to be born from this incident. Even for me, it's a frightening scenario. Recovering or destroying those units is our top priority right now."

"I agree with your judgment on behalf of Representative Athha I am certain she would understand as well." Athrun added.

"Thank you…both of you. Trace status?" Talia asked as she looked to Burt.

"We can still follow them."

"In that case, this ship will now commence further pursuit and engagement of Bogey-1. Course Yellow Alpha, engines at maximum." Talia ordered.

"Course Yellow Alpha, engines at maximum." Burt replied as the Minerva took off in pursuit of Bogey-1 with a few unexpected passengers on board.

A/N: whew…damn this took some time, but I had to be careful with the battle with Haman and Kurei since I didn't want to risk accidently killing Mudie and Shams this soon into the story, but a rematch is ahead for the crew and Kira's little group of Phantom Pain pilots. Only this time the battle will be fiercer will the entrance of two machines from the last war providing unexpected aid.

Thanks for all of the great feedback and reviews so far :)


	6. Chapter 6 Search and Destroy

Chapter 6

Search and Destroy

On the Girty Lue far ahead of the Minerva; Lee and Kurei were having conservation as deckhands and engineers were studying the captured mobile suits while making repairs on their other machines at the same time.

"At any rate, it was a success. Isn't that what we should be saying?" Kurei didn't bother answering the question as he asked a bridge personnel member a question.

"How long until we reach Point B"

"Approximately two hours."

"Do you think they would still pursue us?" Lee asked as Kurei turned his head to face him as he already had an answer in mind as he replied.

"I don't know. Because I don't know, I will assume they will be, and take the prearranged course. You should always assume the worst, especially on the battlefield."

"What about Sting, Auel and Stellar's optimization?"

"There seems to be no problems with them as a whole. They're all sleeping peacefully right now. Although I am troubled...according to Sting's report Auel used a block word on Stellar."

"Does the Lab seriously think we can use pilots who have to be returned to their cradles every time something happens?"

"Even so, they're a lot better than the last bunch, don't you think? At least they understand what to do and what we tell them properly." Lee grunted at the remark, but Kurei smiled. "There's nothing we can do about it. Right now, everything is in its experimental stages. This ship, the mobile suits, the pilots...even this world as well."

"Yes, I know."

"Soon, the day will come when everything can truly begin. And we will be the ones in control. I'll be in my cabin, call me if we detect the ship. Keep a sharp eye out for them."

"Yes sir" Lee said as Kurei departed from the bridge. As the commander of the vessel made his way down the hall Kurei mused to himself in his mind.

"There is no turning back now."

On the Minerva in an officer's cabin Chairman Gilbert Dullindal, Captain Gladys, Athrun, Heero and Cagalli were present as the Chairman started a conversation between him and the princess. "There is nothing I can say to apologize for what has happened. That even the Princess to be caught up in these events, but we would like you to understand our situation."

"Don't worry there is nothing to apologize for. Do you know who was behind the attack?"

"No, unfortunately their ship, there is nothing that clearly identifies them. All we know is that Alliance mobile suits were used, but we cannot be sure that if it was an organized military action by the Alliance since you could easily get your hands on a few daggers on the black market…although the other machines sighted in the battle does raise some questions. However, that is exactly why we must take control of this matter as soon as possible...before it becomes irreversible."

"Yes, I understand. That goes without saying, Chairman. Right now, we must not do anything that could shatter the peace the world holds."

"Thank you for understanding princess" Gilbert commented.

"That unit must be connected to the Alliance, getting Daggers off the black market is one thing, but acquiring a Mirage Colloid cloaked ship is a different matter." Heero noted.

"You don't suppose Blue Cosmos was behind it…they did hold control over the Alliance in the last war?" Athrun asked.

"It is a possibility…they would have the required connections in the military and industrial wings of the Alliance to acquire a ship like that."

Suddenly a knock came at the door followed by a voice over the intercom. "Chairman…Lady Haman Karn is here to see you."

"Let her in" Gilbert ordered as the soldiers outside the room allowed the Regent of Axis to enter the room joining the conversation who immediately eyed Cagalli with a glare.

"Chairman Dullindal I take it this ship is in pursuit of the vessel that attacked Armory One?" Haman asked.

"That is correct."

"I can provide some light on that subject, I believe they are part of the new paramilitary black ops unit the Atlantic Federation created dubbed Phantom Pain, but officially called the 81st Autonomous Mobile Group. From our intelligence network we know that not only were they created by the Atlantic Federation, but they are under the direct control of Blue Cosmos. This unit was designed to provide their organization with organized military strength, composed mainly of the best handpicked Alliance personnel and equipment." Haman explained.

"Are you certain of this?" Heero inquired.

"Yes their mobile suits including some of the machines I recognized as new models produced by the Alliance were among their attack force including the new TS-MA4F Exus Mobile Armor that just came off the assembly line I fought."

"I see…I'll pass along what you have shared with me Lady Haman and inform our intelligence service, but I would appreciate any information you have on this black ops group."

"But use of such technology is in violation with the treaty." Cagalli snapped.

"Wake up little girl, they are a black operations unit within the Alliance funded by Blue Cosmos…should it really surprise you that they unitize illegal technologies like that?"

Even Heero and Athrun couldn't argue with that logical.

"How you became a representative of Orb baffles me."

"What was that" Cagalli snapped as she stood up.

"Cagalli calm down" Athrun urged.

"Its oblivious to me you are not only naïve and possess no experience with politics, but I am convinced now that the Orb Union government made you as a representative in the first place is to serve nothing more as a pretty figurehead with no real power whatsoever. You are nothing compared to the leader your father was…in fact I wouldn't be surprised if the poor man was rolling over in his grave right now no doubt shamed by your lack of leadership and experience combined with your imprudence."

Haman's last remark struck several nerves as Cagalli had lost her cool all in one go and was about to launch herself at Haman intent on beating the regent's smug smile off her face. Fortunately Heero and Athrun barely managed to restrain her in time.

"Let go of me!"

"DAMN IT Cagalli get a grip…this is not how a Representative of Orb should act" Heero snapped.

"He's right calm down!" Athrun said as the two men struggled to hold back the enraged princess.

"I have nothing further to say…my point has clearly been proven." Haman replied with a smirk as her expression clearly said _Go ahead and hit me and I'll declare war on your ass. _

"Representative…Mr. Yuy is right your behavior right now is disgraceful." Talia noted as Cagalli finally calm down, but Athrun and Heero kept their hold on her until she was sure it was safe to let her go.

Realizing a change in subject was called for Gilbert spoke up trying to defuse the situation. "If you would like, please join me on a tour around the ship while we have some time."

"Chairman" Talia said as she was unsure about that idea.

"It might be temporary, but they are putting their lives in our hands. I believe that this should make a fine gesture of good faith from our country as a sworn friend." Gilbert replied as he rose up out of his chair to walk over to the door to open it. Entering the room was Lunamaria, assigned to be the group's tour guide while Rey and Shinn were resting up from their previous battle.

"Lunamaria" Athrun exclaimed.

"Athrun, Heero and Cagalli" The young woman said equally surprised to see them aboard the ship.

"You know them?" Captain Gladys asked.

"Well" Lunamaria said realizing her mistake.

"It's alright Lunamaria" Heero assured her.

"Yes I fought with Heero Yuy and Athrun Zala during the war."

"You what" Talia exclaimed as this revelation surprised her.

"Really" Gilbert said with sudden interest. "Then this will make this tour go even smoother. I am little curious to hear about your involvement in the war young lady."

"So I am actually?" The captain said as seemed interested to hear some of Luna's war stories.

Cagalli sighed while Athrun shook his head knowing that this was going to be a long night.

Around that moment somewhere within Axis Zeon's mining facility located on the moon; Nicholas Peacecraft was inside his personal cabin aboard his new personal flagship a recently constructed modified and upgraded of the Gwadan class Supersize battleship. The vessel shared many of the note-worthy characteristics of the original Gwadan battleship used by Haman.

Nicholas's personal flagship dubbed the Napoleon was one thousand and two hundred and fifty meters long with a black hull lined with crimson; the large tanks near the stern were removed from the design and replaced with more efficient fuel-cells protected by a dense layer of laminated armor while the vessel itself boasted a compliment of weapons which included the standard thirteen twin Mega Particle cannons, along with four Mega Particle cannon placements on the hull, but the new additions to the armament was mostly borrowed from the Archangel-class along with technology pioneered by the PLANTs and the Gundam Scientists providing the giant battleship with a heavy arsenal of new weapons.

On the sides of the bow of the vessel near the port and starboard side mobile suit launch platforms concealed by two armor plates were two large QZX-1 Tannhäuser positron blaster cannons, one on the starboard side of the ship while there was one on the port side both hidden cannons were actually in-between the mobile suit launchers and the main section of the ship, but there was third Tannhäuser positron blaster cannons hidden near the tip of the ship's bow larger than the other two and equipped with its own power generator giving the warship a highly destructive clearing sweep of enemy vessels in its path.

Dotted around the hull was a fierce network of thirty Igelstellung 75 mm automatic multi-barrel CIWS that provided a wide range of protection from missiles and mobile suits in conjunction with a dozen small beam gun batteries providing a formidable defense against mobile suits and small craft that protected the entire ship along with four dual rail-guns which were also positioned with two on the top of the vessel and two under the ship.

Along the main section of the battleship were three Gottfried Mk.79 225 cm dual high-energy beam cannons, one positioned above the other on the sloping structure of the ship towards the stern of the ship. Aside from cannon placements the battleship had at least twenty heavy missile launchers and twenty two intercept missile launchers that each fired different missiles ranging from scattered shot missiles for dealing with multiple targets to heavy ordinance missiles used for anti-ship combat along with smaller missiles for quick interception and defense.

Lastly the vessel of course had a few Anti-beam depth charge launchers along with a few smaller launchers for flares. The rest of the ship was heavily armored with not only laminated armor, but the ship was built out of Neo-Titanium and possessed a powerful set of thermonuclear pulse thrusters for quick travel while like the Minerva the Napoleon had a secondary combat bridge to where the main personnel in the regular bridge, use during combat. However the combat bridge was protected with a layer of phase shift armor.

Nicholas Peacecraft laid behind his polished black limestone-styled desk where he was going over reports he received from engineers aboard the craft and members of his inspection crew after going over both the ship and the mining facility.

Although appearing almost the same as he did with his youthful appearance, but his black hair had grown a little longer touching his shoulders while he sported an all-white uniform lined with gold modeled after the Admiral uniform of the Zeon Military complete with white gloves, black boots and a red sash-like belt around his waist.

His room was large and spacious with a second room which was a bedroom with a bath and shower while his office aside from his desk also had some leather chairs in front for speaking to guests, officers, crewmembers, etc. He also had a soft black leather sofa by the door while across from it was an antique wooden cabinet containing a set of ornate katana swords made from Gundanium and a number of assault rifles, handguns and combat knives along with a few small explosive devices safely locked behind a hidden compartment.

Behind him and above the sofa were a pair of beautiful oil paintings, one was of a European countryside while the one behind Nicholas was one of the Royal Peacecraft Family Seal.

As Nicholas continued shuffling through the reports he was interrupted by a call from the bridge, after putting his papers down the young eighteen year old leader of Axis Zeon's military forces pushed a button on his deck opening the line.

"What is it Captain Timber?"

"Forgive me for disturbing you Supreme Commander, but we have received a message from Lady Haman's escort at Armory One. There has been an incident sir."

"What happened?"

"According to what information was available; Armory One was attacked by an unknown vessel possessing Mirage Colloid cloaking technology while at the same time a raid by a group of infiltrators attacked the military installation stealing three of the new Gundam prototypes ZAFT had just finished combat testing with."

"What is Haman's current status?"

"As we speak Lady Haman is aboard the Minerva following in pursuit after the fleeing vessel with Supreme Chairman Dullindal aboard."

"I see…anything else?"

"Well sir we also received a report of a trio of ships; two were confirmed to be Gwanvan class battleships and a third was an unknown vessel, but its design and heat pattern suggest a likely heavy battleship class. They were spotted near Armory One, but our tracking recon last sight of them."

"Are they part of the renegade Zeon Faction left on Mars?"

"Most likely"

"Just great…do we have any ships operating near Lady Haman's location considering the route the Minerva is taking?"

"Checking sir…yes we have two Gwanvan class-ships operating in the debris belt, Admiral Anavel Gato is conducting field testing and combat exercises for the new MS-14J ReGelg units along with a few AMX-008 Ga-Zowmnn and AMA-01X Jamru Fin units and two prototypes of the AMX-009 Dreissen we building for the Eurasians to help produce their own mobile suit force."

"Send Gato a message and tell him that I need him to find the Minerva and safe guard Haman until I arrive."

"Right away sir"

"Commander as soon as all preparations are complete we are departing immediately, sent a course to rendezvous with the Minerva." Nicholas ordered as he felt uneasy about the potential danger Haman was about to find herself in.

Elsewhere on the ship making their way to the hanger were Gilbert, Athrun, Heero, Haman and Cagalli with Lunamaria acting as their tour guide. Captain Gladys returned to the bridge and she and Gilbert heard a little bit about her part in the last war and the fact that she was personally trained by Heero Yuy to pilot a mobile suit.

"Interesting, I never knew you had such experience in the first war Miss Hawke." Gilbert complimented.

"Well sir no offense, but I was a little worried what might happen if anyone found out that I was involved with the Clyne Faction so I kinda just toned down my combat abilities to keep anyone from becoming suspicious of me you understand right?" Lunamaria said nervously.

"Not at all…it's perfectly reasonable. All things considered. Does your family know?"

"No…I basically told them one part of the story which was true…I just left out the details."

"I see…well they can't hold it against you then, but I hope we'll be able to observe your real combat talents soon."

"With the pursuit going on that will probably be soon."

After the group entered an elevator the Chairman was explaining details about the ship as they proceeded down the hall. "Nevertheless, this ship has found itself in quite an unexpected situation. To have to go straight into combat without warning, and for this to happen the day before its maiden voyage ceremony…I wonder if this ship should be considered cursed or blessed?"

"From here, we will go up to the Mobile Suit deck." Lunamaria said as she led everyone into the hanger stepping out of the elevator and leading them down the hall.

"Please think of this as the heart of the ship. Of course, I can't tell you how many suits the ship could carry, and we're not carrying to full capacity at the moment." Gilbert looked towards the damaged ZAKU units Heero and Athrun had used, Haman's machine sat in one corner of the hanger. "The ZGMF-1000 Zaku, I believe you already know about it. It's currently ZAFT's mainstay mobile suit as well as Zeon's. And then we have Minerva's most distinguishing feature, the ZGMF-X52S Impulse and its launching system. You saw it in the colony, didn't you?" The Chairman asked as he looked to Athrun who only replied.

"Ah...yes."

"According to our engineers, this is the newest and most efficient mobile suit system. Although I don't really understand the technical details" Gilbert allowed the sentence to trail off when he noticed the expression on Cagalli's face. "Does the sight bother you, Princess?"

"You seem to be enjoying this, Chairman." Cagalli answered as the chairman noted.

"I wouldn't say that I'm enjoying it. But, to think that we've gotten out of that chaos that had temporary ruled over our government for a short time and now that we finally possess this level of power through everyone's sincere efforts, I'm glad."

"Power is it? Power is necessary because conflict will never disappear, Chairman?"

"Yes."

"Then, what do you think about the incident at the colony? What do you feel about the damage your country suffered, due to the presence of those three new mobile suits?"

"Representative" Athrun said as he was concerned about the remarks she was making.

"So then, you are saying we should not possess any power?"

"Why was it necessary in the first place? And now, after everything! We swore, don't you remember? We swore not to repeat that tragedy again, to join hands and choose to move forward!"

"That is...however, Princess." The Chairman was about to continue speaking when Shinn suddenly interrupted and said.

"Sugarcoating everything is indeed an Athha family art!"

"Shinn" Luna said in surprise.

"Finally someone with sense" Haman muttered under her breath.

"Enemy ship sighted! Distance: 8000. Condition Red announced. Pilots are to stand by in their units." An announcement from Meyrin was heard in the hanger saying.

Hanger work crews were scrambled to complete any last minute work to make their mobile suits combat worthy. Lunamaria tried to stop Shinn, but he had begun to move away. "Shinn" The pilot of the Impulse Gundam floated away as Lunamaria looked back at the chairman and said. "Please forgive him, Chairman. I'll have a talk with him afterward."

"I am truly sorry, Princess. He was an immigrant from ORB; I never thought he would say such a thing." Gilbert explained as Cagalli and Athrun were somewhat surprised to hear about that while Heero was silent while Haman offered no input on the matter. Meanwhile on the bridge of the Girty Lue; Ian Lee looked to the colonel as he said.

"So they came, as we expected."

"Yes. Well, it just proves that ZAFT isn't slacking off either. We'll strike them down here. All hands prepare for battle, pilots to the briefing room."

Back on the Minerva on its bridge Talia was issuing orders to her crew. "Though I doubt the enemy will enter the Debris Belt either, it's still going to be a dangerous area for a battle. I leave piloting the ship to you." Arthur saluted as he simply answered.

"Ma'am"

"We will send out Shinn and Lunamaria. The repair work on their units is finished right?"

"Yes, Ma'am" Meyrin replied.

"Distance to target: 6500"

At that moment the chairman stepped onto the bridge as he was accompanied by Cagalli, Athrun and Heero. "Chairman" Talia asked as she noticed Cagalli and her bodyguard was with them. The Chairman asked for a request.

"Can I ask a favor of you, Captain? I think I would like to have the guests from Orb on the bridge as well." The Captain was unsure about it, but the chairman continued to say. "As you know, the Representative commanded a ship in the last war and has experienced many battles as did Heero Yuy. I would like them to see this ship's battle from that point of view."

"I understand. If that is what you want Chairman then I'll allow it."

"Thank you, Talia."

"Distance to target: 6000." A bridge personnel member noted as Talia ordered.

"Shield the bridge! Prepare for anti-ship, anti-mobile suit battle!"

Inside the briefing room aboard the Girty Lue; Kurei stood before Sven, Sting, Shams, Mudie, Stellar, Auel, Josh and Miller sat down on chairs before their commanding officer while behind him a wall-mounted monitor displayed a tactical map of the area they were in. With a deep breath Kurei began laying out their battle plan to sink the Minerva.

"Alright as many of you have guessed the new enemy battleship has pursued us to the Debris Belt, so obviously we're going to sink their vessel to put an end to their pursuit. But taking their mobile suits and the skills their pilots displayed we're going to set up an ambush. Sting, Auel, Stellar and Sven will position themselves here in this cluster of colony remains in the path of the decoy we'll launch leading the enemy mobile suits towards you." Kurei explained.

Stellar smiled childishly at Kurei while Mudie was eyeing the commander herself.

"The rest of you will launch once we have anchored our ship to this large asteroid and used it to circle around after shutting down our engines to surprise the enemy from behind. As Sven and Sting's team keep the enemy mobile suits busy we'll sink their mothership."

"What about that combining bastard?" Auel asked.

"Well to put it simply Auel you guys can bust him up, kill him or if you have a chance capture him. Either way I want these guys taken out of the picture." Kurei replied.

"I won't let you down sir." Stellar said as her cheeks turned red.

"Oh come on you couldn't kill that kid, I'll sink that ship." Mudie said confidently.

"Ok you two save it for the enemy" Kurei said with his hands raised when he noticed the growing animosity behind the two women as both of them were determined to prove themselves better than the other in the eyes of their commander. "Now get up…Sting, Auel, Sven and Stellar you four are launching first…get ready. Dismissed" Kurei said as he ended the meeting.

A short time later after launching the four mobile suits ahead of the Girty Lue, the battleship was adjusting its course while preparing to launch a decoy at the same time it deactivated its engines to trick the enemy ship while using its anchor to loop around the asteroid to sneak up behind the enemy.

""Fire the anchor! At the same time, stop the engines and launch the decoy." Kurei ordered before adding with additional firmness in his voice. "Don't screw up on the timing!"

Meanwhile back aboard the Minerva, inside the mobile suit hanger a ZAKU warrior or more specially the one belonging to Lunamaria Hawke was being readied for launch as it was loaded onto the linear catapult.

"Lunamaria Hawke, Zaku warrior; stand by for launch"

"Lunamaria" Heero's voice said suddenly over the intercom.

"Heero"

"Listen Lunamaria…the gloves can come off now. You don't need to hold back anymore you have my permission to fight the enemy with your real skills." Heero instructed as Luna was actually pleased to hear those words.

"Thanks Heero…Meyrin equip the Slash-wizard pack onto my ZAKU."

"But that's not your usual one."

"I know it's not my normal set, but just do it." Lunamaria demanded as Meyrin was now just becoming aware of the student-teacher relationship Luna apparently had with Heero.

On the bridge; Burt reported to the captain as Heero resumed his seat after thanking Talia for allowing him to use the ship's communication system to briefly speak to Lunamaria. The captain was actually interested to see the girl's real skills in the upcoming battle.

"Target is holding course. Distance: 4700." Burt noted.

"Zaku, Impulse…launch" Talia ordered as Lunamaria was going to be launched first.

"Slash Zaku Warrior, catapult engaged." Meyrin announced as Lunamaria and her mobile suit was prepared to be deployed.

"Lunamaria Hawke, Zaku, going out!" The reddish pink machine was sent out of the ship and into space; following her was Shinn in the Core Splendor.

"Following, Impulse, free to launch!" Meyrin informed Shinn as he was charging up the thrusters for launch.

"Shinn Asuka, Core Splendor launching!" The Core Splendor was launched from the ship soon followed by the Chest and Leg flyers that were soon followed by the Blast Silhouette as they combined to form the Blast Impulse Gundam. Following the two ZAFT mobile suits two GuAIZ R units were sent out with them as support. On the bridge Gilbert was talking about the enemy ship.

"Bogey-1 eh, that is what we call it, but I wonder what the real name of that ship is. A name indicates the existence of a thing." Gilbert began as he turned to look at Athrun. "If, in fact, that name is false...if that is false, then it would mean that the very existence of that thing is false, wouldn't it? Alex...no, or is it Athrun Zala?" The Chairman said as he revealed the true identity of Cagalli's bodyguard to everyone on the bridge. In space the Chaos, Abyss and Gaia Gundams along with the Strike Noir Gundam laid in wait among the debris in the area preparing to ambush the incoming ZAFT mobile suit team as the Girty Lue was silently looping around the asteroid.

Minutes passed as the group heading out to engage the Girty Lue, but as they journeyed through the area heading towards their expected target Lunamaria said a few comments. "This time we'll beat these guys."

"The other side is probably aware of us by now. Don't let your guard down." Shinn advised.

"I know that. Don't talk like Rey. You're messing up my concentration." Lunamaria spat back at the pilot of Impulse as on the Minerva as everyone on the bridge was quiet until the silence was broke by Arthur as he asked Burt a question.

"Any change with the enemy ship?"

"None sir; they're holding their course and speed."

"Good. Launcher 1! Launcher 6! Load tubes 1 through 4 with Dispar missiles. Activate CIWS and Tristan. We'll stop them this time for sure."

As preparations for an attack on the enemy ship was being made; Cagalli turned to the Chairman after he had exposed Athrun, but as she was about to prepare herself to possibly defend him.

"But Chairman Dullindal"

"There's no need to worry, Representative Athha." Gilbert began. "I did not mean to accuse him of anything. I am aware of everything. Including the measures former Chairwoman Eileen Canaver took against him and others. It's just that if I am to talk to you, I'd like to talk to your true self; Athrun. That's it."

Outside; the assault party from the Minerva continued on course never knowing they were walking straight into a trap. "Why? Why is there still no response?" Shinn said to himself as he didn't notice any change from the Girty Lue while on the bridge Burt announced.

"Impulse, distance remaining to Bogey-1: 1400."

"Still no change in their course? What is this? Some sort of strategy?" Arthur asked himself as less than a second later Talia followed by Athrun realized all but too late that they had walked into a trap.

"Damn it!"

"It's a decoy!"

In the debris field Sven called out to the others "All right, let the attack begin!" as the Strike Noir followed by the Chaos took off to engage their prey as Auel soon followed along with Stellar. Before the group sent from the Minerva had a chance to react the GuAIZ R piloted by a fellow named Shaw was the first to meet his end as Auel surprised attacked it from behind a large chunk of metal blasting it the ZAFT machine with its chest mounted cannon destroying the ZAFT machine as the crimson beam tore though the cockpit thus ending the life of its pilot.

"Shaw!" Lunamaria cried as she took notice of the explosion which was a sure enough sign that he was gone. Shinn began giving orders as he went on the defensive to avoid getting overwhelmed by Abyss and Chaos Gundam's mobile attack pods.

"Spread out and fire at will! Damn! An ambush!? Bogey-1 is…gone."

At that moment on the Minerva the supposed Bogey-1 they were chasing disappeared as Burt announced that it had suddenly disappeared without a trace. Leaving Arthur surprised as Meyrin also had another announcement to make. "And Shaw's unit, too; Signal lost! At Yellow 62, Beta, four heat sources! They are... It's Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss including one unknown mobile suit!"

"Hurry up with the search. Find Bogey-1 quickly!" Talia commanded as speak of the devil. On the Girty Lue's bridge as the ship had completely circling the asteroid it had anchored itself to. Kurei nodded his head as it was a signal for Ian who began giving orders.

"Launch the Daggers and the rest of our mobile suits! Fire missiles tubes 5 through 8; automated aiming at the enemy."

The engines of the EAF ship came back to life as the Girty Lue began to advance upon the Minerva from behind as they launched two Doppelhorn Dagger L units from the ship along with Mudie and Shams in their machines, but at the same time their said target had just now discovered where the Girty Lue was as Burt was the first to make that discovery. "At Blue 18, Mark 9, Charlie, a heat source! It's Bogey-1! Distance: 500!" Arthur was shocked, but Burt still had one more thing to inform everyone.

"Also, four more mobile suits approaching!"

"Behind us" Talia said as she was also surprised by this turn of events.

"Aiming laser detected!" Burt shouted as the Girty Lue was seconds away from opening fire on them.

"Launch anti-beam cartridges. Starboard 30 degrees; aim Tristan." Talia ordered by Burt had to be the bearing of some unfortunate news.

"Not possible. Mobile suits at Orange 22, Delta."

"Engines at maximum circle around the starboard asteroid and use it as a shield! Meyrin, recall Shinn and the rest! Prep the remaining units to launch!"

"Yes ma'am"

"Use the fissures on the surface of the asteroid to evade them. Prevent a direct hit!" Talia said issuing an order to the helmsman.

"Ma'am"

"Arthur, intercept them!"

"Load Dispar into launchers 5 and 10…fire" Arthur ordered as everyone on the bridge carried out Talia's orders while on the battlefield the second GuAIZ R was ruthlessly shot apart by Sven and his beam rifles while the ZAFT mass produced machine was hiding behind some trashed solar panels hoping it could get the jump on one of the enemy machines, but sadly that wasn't going to work and the GuAIZ R and its pilot paid for their poor attempt. Lunamaria was locking horns with Stellar and the Gaia Gundam as she called out to Shinn.

"Dale! Those bastards, how the hell did we walk straight into this trap?"

"Yeah, it seems so. But with the situation like this, we can't get back to help the Minerva." Shinn said as he was fighting off both Sven and Sting as they were attacking him in a combined effort to take him down. Meanwhile the Minerva was trying to hold its own against the Girty Lue, but with the ship behind and four enemy mobile suits harassing them there was very little they could do.

As Haman was to launch in her Qubeley mobile suit; just outside radar range of the two ships; the three Mars Zeon force, two of them were modified Gwanvan class battleships and the lead vessel of the advance force was a Sadalahn class battleship. The three ships were attempting to sneak up on the Minerva, but they came across the fierce battle taking place.

The vessels stopped as they continued to linger just outside of radar range while quietly observing the battle waiting for the right moment to step in should the proper opportunity present itself to them.

A/N: well the next chapter is up and the following chapter will be tougher as it nearly breaks into a three way battle. Also Luna will get to show off her true abilities while she and Shinn take on Sven, Sting, Auel and Stellar while Haman, Rey and Heero will fight off Shams, Mudie, Kurei and two Dagger pilots shortly before an advance force of Mars Zeon enters the right.

Thank you for all of your reviews so far I really appreciate the feedback.


	7. Chapter 7 Tensions

A/N: thank you for your patience, some computer problems hindered the posting of this chapter, but I am back on track.

Chapter 7

Tensions

As the battle waged on the Minerva was trying to hold its own against the Girty Lue, but with the ship behind and two enemy mobile suits harassing them there was very little they could do. Meanwhile back at the battlefield; Lunamaria fired her shoulder mounted MMI-M826 Hydra Gatling beam cannons at the approaching Gaia Gundam as it was running across a derelict solar panel attempt to take advantage of its mobility.

Although the panel was breaking up as it ran along the Gaia Gundam was able to move across them with ease, but when Lunamaria fired off her beam guns at the enemy machine. The black Gundam jumped off the panels and was heading right for her as the ZAFT elite pilot noted.

"What's the deal with you people? You thieves"

"I'll take you down."

Lunamaria drew her melee weapon the MA-MR Falx G7 beam axe ready to engage the enemy mobile suit as she charged straight at it. Stellar dived down to narrowly missing Luna's first attack as the Gaia Gundam transformed before drawing its beam saber intending to cut into the ZAKU's exposed back, but Luna reacted faster as she drew a beam tomahawk and parried her beam saber before counterattacking with the beam axe.

Stellar was barely able to block the attack as the impact of the axe on her shield knocked her back as Luna threw the attack aiming for her enemy's head. The Gaia Gundam almost lost its head, but Stellar barely evaded the melee weapon as it flew pass the Gundam's head, but it disabled one of her shoulder mounted cannons.

"You are history!" Luna shouted as she swung her beam axe, but the Gaia Gundam ducked to evade. However Luna's machine kicked the stolen Gundam in the head knocking it back before being knocked to the ground with a blow to the back by the blunt side of the axe. Stellar scrambled to get away before Luna could land a finishing blow as the Gaia rolled to the side before taking off to escape to reconsider its combat strategy.

At that moment Auel stepped in and tried to even the odds, but Luna saw the attack coming and quickly went on the evasive as she dodged the Abyss Gundam's onslaught barrage of beam energy fire while trying to close the distance between the two machines.

"Who the hell is this guy?" Auel snapped as he drew his own melee weapon the beam glaive before locking weapons with his foe.

Lunamaria's machine kicked Auel's machine in the knee before grabbing a grenade with one hand before throwing in front of the Abyss Gundam before the red ZAKU backed off right before the grenade exploded in the enemy Gundam's face. Auel was taken aback by the ferocity of his foe as well as the grenade exploding in his face, but the Abyss Gundam managed to raise its beam glaive up in time to block a swing from the ZAKU's beam axe.

Stellar was charging at the ZAKU from behind, but Lunamaria jumped up into the air as Stellar piloting the Gaia Gundam in its quadruple mode sailed under the ZAKU before crashing into Auel's machine.

Meanwhile Sting and Sven had Shinn on the ropes as they chased him about. Sting was chasing the Impulse Gundam in the Chaos Gundam's mobile armor mode as it deployed its mobile attack pods against the Blast Impulse Gundam as the two greed pods fired streams of firefly missiles at the green and white target, but Shinn managed to get behind some large pieces of floating wreckage that shielded him from the missiles as the debris took the hits for him instead.

"Go around the outside, Sven! We'll nail him this time."

"Agreed" Sven said as he heard Sting's communiqué as the Strike Noir Gundam flew into some large wreckage which had appeared to had belonged to a colony at one time in hopes of corning the enemy machine.

Shinn was flying through the piece of an old colony's interior until he came out the other the young pilot came under attack from Sven in his machine as he rained down a hellfire of beam rifle shots from the dual rifles he carried. Shinn barely evaded them, but he managed to launch a counterattack against him when he fired off both of the Impulse Gundam's high-powered beam cannons forcing Sven to break off his attack and dodge the incoming beams.

Sting emerged from the colony remains right behind Shinn as he began blasting away at the Impulse Gundam while he deployed the Chaos Gundam's weapon pods to aid him. Despite being out numbered and a little outgunned between the two machines Shinn was holding his own as he managed to destroy one of the Chaos Gundam's weapon pods with a railgun shot while a volley of missiles he fired hit the Chaos Gundam square in the chest knocking the enemy machine back as its Phase Shift Armor weathered the damage.

But Sven returned with beam pistols blazing as the Strike Noin was keeping close to the chunks of floating wreckage using them as shields to protect himself as the black machine was trying to close the distance between him and the Impulse Gundam.

At that moment aboard the Girty Lue; the Minerva was in a dire situation as the enemy ship continued to harass them as did their mobile suit as the new ZAFT ship was chased around the large asteroid unable to use half of their weapons and land a successful hit, but its commander had a plan in mind while Ian offered a comment.

"They're persistent."

"Still, if the ship is immobilized, it's all over." Kurei rose up from his seat and commanded the personnel on the bridge. "Fire missiles into the asteroid that they're clinging to, I say we should treat them to a good meteor shower, one to bury their ship!"

"Sir"

"I'm going out to finish it off. I'll leave the rest to you." Kurei said as he left the bridge to take his mobile armor back out into battle while Ian complied with his plan and began to carry out the plan given to him by masked colonel. A few moments later the Girty Lue fired its missiles at the ZAFT battleship as Burt informed the crew of the incoming volley.

"We have more missiles incoming, six of them!"

"Intercept!" Talia ordered as Burt noticed something strange about their course.

"But...this"

"It's not on course for a direct hit? Please move the ship away from the asteroid!" Athrun warned as he saw what their enemy was planning, but it was too late as the Minerva were assaulted by what Kurei called a meteor shower using the missiles to send large chunks of the asteroid flying at the Minerva as each explosion and asteroid hit and rocked the ship.

Arthur had a damage report after the ship was pinned between the asteroid and the debris they were hit with as the ship suffered tremendous damage. As Arthur and Talia were discussing the problem at hand a mobile armor accompanied by the two mobile suits that had launched from the ship earlier was heading right for the Minerva to finish the job as Kurei had only these words to offer.

"You haven't even had your maiden voyage ceremony yet. What a pity, but I'm going to bring you down!" Kurei opened up communications with the mobile suits nearby. "Mudie…Shams form up on me we're going to finish them off."

"Sir" Shams and Mudie said together as the two mobile suits formed up behind the Exus.

"Thrusters 4 and 6 are damaged. Captain, with this, we won't be able to move!" Arthur informed the captain as Malik had some more bad news to deliver, as did Meyrin after him.

"The path ahead of the ship has been blocked!"

"A mobile armor and more mobile suits are approaching."

Talia picked up a phone on her arm rest and made an announcement to Ades who was in the hanger. "Abes, Send out Rey and if she wants to allow Haman to head out!"

"Ma'am, but the catapult has been blocked off by the rocks."

"I don't care if they have to walk out there, just hurry! Shinn and the rest" Talia asked as she turned to Meyrin.

"Impulse and the Zaku are still in combat with Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss!" Meyrin reported as Gilbert issued a question.

"Are there any more mobile suits on this ship?"

"We have no more pilots!"

"Captain, if we use the Tannhäuser on the rubble in front…" Arthur was saying, but Talia cut him off.

"Even if we blast it, it would only gouge the surface of the rock. And we'd scatter that same amount of rock everywhere." Meanwhile a short distance away a DSSD carrier ship was quietly moving through the debris belt while inside the mobile suit hanger Char was preparing to head out. It was only a few minutes ago that they detected the Minerva and the Girty Lue, but his reason for heading out there was because the ship had intercepted an emergency message from the Minerva to Armory One that Athrun and Cagalli along with Heero were on board and were in pursuit of an unknown enemy vessel.

Their ship was in close enough proximity that Char was going to launch in the Testament Gundam to lend the besieged ship a hand. The Red Comet was about to head out, but he was stopped by Amuro rushing towards the former Zeon ace pilot.

"Hold on Char?"

"What is it Amuro?" Char inquired.

"So you're heading out alone to assist that besieged battleship. Is there anyone else going out with you?"

"No I should be more than enough to handle them?"

"Want about the defense of this ship?"

"Are you volunteering to go out and protect the vessel?"

"If you have any other machines aboard I can use."

"We only have the Justice as the only combat worthy mobile suit, but" Char began as he was hesitant to allow Amuro use of the Justice Gundam. On their way to the DSSD space station; Char had picked up the Justice Gundam from their hidden storehouse bunker for the Gundam in the debris belt to relocate the Gundam as they did every two months to prevent it from being discovered. "I trust your skills are still as a good as they were during the war."

"Having second thoughts?"

"No…you may borrow the Justice Gundam and defend the ship from enemy attacks I'll deal with the enemy forces and protect the Minerva." Char said before finally making his way to the cockpit of the Testament Gundam while Amuro wasted no time boarding the cockpit of the Justice Gundam as both Gundams were prepared for launch.

Meanwhile further away on the other side of the debris field where the Minerva and the Girty Lue were engaged in battle; a conversation was taking place aboard the Sadalahn class with its escort of two Endra classes. On the bridge of the vessel a trio of men were discussing the battle they were quietly observing while staying out of range of the enemy vessel's radar systems.

Sitting in the commander's chair was a man with jet black hair and piercing green eyes dressed in a Zeon military uniform belonging to high ranking officers around the rank of Admiral, but this man had a rank only one in the military of Mars Zeon could reach.

"That new ship ZAFT built wasn't bad while it lasted. Perhaps they should have assigned a better captain to her."

"I never liked the design much, but that combining mobile suit seems to be holding its own so far." Another slightly younger solder in his mid-twenties with steel colored hair said as he offered his own commentary on the battle and the mobile suits they were watching.

"Forget that white mobile suit…that red and pink machine is kicking ass." The last member of the trio said.

"For using a mass production model the pilot of that machine is considerably skilled. Odd they didn't place that pilot into that new prototype mobile suit." The leader of the trio added.

"Supreme Commander Bluestone…our long range sensor pod has detected another ship on the far side of the debris field." A crewman working at a control board on the right hand side of the bridge announced.

"Alliance or ZAFT?" Supreme Commander Charles Bluestone of the Mars Zeon fleet demanded.

"Neither sir…it appears to be a DSSD ship, Laurasia class." The crewman replied as he brought up an image of the vessel the sensor pod was transmitting on one of the overhead monitors. "Sir we have just confirmed two mobile suits launching from the ship…it's the Justice and Testament mobile suits of the Clyne Faction." The crewmember added as Commander Bluestone watched the two famous Gundams emerge from the ship; the Justice was staying nearby to protect their mother ship while the Testament was heading straight for the battle happening around the Minerva.

"Well now this should be a little more entertaining. If I am not mistaken that is the machine the Red Comet is using."

"Sir give me the order to launch…we can ambush the Red Comet and end him here."

"I understand how much you wish to take out Char, but we have our orders Lt. Colonel Ridden to observe…not to engage unless we are under threat of attack. Frankly I too would love nothing more than a chance to remove Haman and Char from the picture, but we have our orders. Don't worry if we're lucky maybe the Alliance will do Char and Haman in for us…but then if Haman is eliminated then Zeon would fall completely under Nicholas Peacecraft's control. He is a far greater threat to us than Haman and Char and if he would to gain complete control over Axis then it would mean more trouble for us down the road when we confront Axis. A pity we can't recruit him to our side." Charles said as he kept his attention on his subordinate Johnny Ridden before the second member of their group the steel haired man offered some further input.

"I agree sir…between the two Nicholas Peacecraft is a far more effective leader than Haman Karn not to mention a superior pilot compared to the lady regent. Let's not forget he has control over one of the most powerful weapons the Libra space battleship." Ryan Feffer said as Charles agreed with his assessment on the Lightning Count.

"We'll continue observing the battle before we'll depart from this area I am certain our arrival in this area has not gone unnoticed."

Meanwhile back at the battle between the Minerva and the forces of the Girty Lue under Kurei's troops, but at that moment the crew on the bridge of the trapped ship was trying to figure a way out of their current situation. As they did Rey was making his way out of the ship taking him with the Blaze wizard pack for his ZAKU Phantom and of course the standard beam rifle as he thought.

_Gil is on the Minerva…I absolutely can't allow it to be taken out!_

Not long after Rey left the ship, Haman exited the ship and was ready to deal with the advancing mobile suits while back on the Minerva's bridge Athrun asked a question. "How many starboard thrusters are still operational?" The Captain was hesitant to answer him at first, but soon she replied.

"Six of them. But even if we were to use them to get out, we'd just be an easy target!" Athrun thought for a moment before offering his suggestion.

"Fire thrusters, and at the same time, fire all of your starboard guns... at the asteroid."

"What?" A surprised Arthur shouted.

"We'll use the explosion to push the ship out. Together with the surrounding rocks." Athrun said as he laid out his idea, but the Captain's second in command had some objections.

"Don't be stupid! If we did that, Minerva itself would be."

"Right now, escaping this situation is more important! If we stay here like this, we'll just be sitting ducks!" Athrun said cutting Arthur off.

"Talia." Gilbert asked, as he seemed to approve of the plan.

"That's true. All right, let's give it a try." Talia said as she was also in agreement, but Arthur was still against it.

"Captain!"

"We'll talk about this afterwards, Arthur. Prepare all starboard guns for firing. Engage all starboard thrusters to full throttle, and fire simultaneously. Make sure to match the timing!" Talia said as Malik notified the appropriate stations from his console.

"All starboard flank guns, prepare for simultaneous firing. On my mark, starboard thrusters, full throttle!"

At that same moment, Rey was in a debris field facing Kurei and his two cohorts while Mudie and Shams were going around to attack the ship directly. The mobile armor pilot attempted to surprise Rey and finish him by attacking him from behind with his mobile weapon pods, but the blonde teen sensed the attack coming and reacted and evaded the beam gunshots fired at him. The Earth Alliance Colonel was growing frustrated with his foe as he shouted out.

"You're something else aren't you?" Kurei replied as he fired on the white ZAKU Phantom while Rey dodged and evaded Kurei's attacks.

"Get out!" Rey shouted as he rushed behind some floating asteroids before attacking one of the Dagger L units from behind blasting into its back with his machine's beam rifle until it exploded. With one out of three enemies down, Rey was now setting his sights on defeating the remaining two.

"Josh!"

"Withdraw Miller! This one is a hand full. Go after the mothership." Kurei ordered as the pilot of the last Doppelhorn Dagger L mobile suit understood his orders and turned about to attack the Minerva. Unfortunately, Rey wasn't planning to allow one enemy machine to reach the Minerva. Resourcefully using the missiles on his Blaze pack to clear a path way for his beam rifle shots as he shot down the Dagger L in the distance before it could even get close to the enemy ship. Meanwhile on the Girty Lue near by, Ian had a plan of his own to insure their victory.

"All right, let's finish them off."

"The rocks are in the way so I can't make a direct hit." A crewman at the weapons control console reported.

"We only have to corner them so they have no place left to go. The Colonel might think it is boring, but our mobile suits will soon be low on power." Ian replied as the ship was moving closer to acquire a better vantage point to finish off the ship. But Mudie was closing in while Shams moved in to attack Haman to draw the Zeon regent's attention so Mudie could get by to skin the enemy ship. Much to their surprise getting by the female pilot was a little easy for them while Haman was focused on taking out Shams, but now the Phantom Pilot had a fight on his hands as Haman's bits forced him on the defensive.

Shams fired a volley of missiles accompanied with some heavy weapons fire trying to gun down the white mobile suit, but the Qubeley managed to dodge the beam energy shots fired at it while Haman used her bits to create a barrier of energy destroying the missiles as they collided with the beams.

"Come on Mudie hurry up and sink that damn ship." Shams said as two beams from Haman's bits grazed the left arm and right leg of his machine.

Mudie had reached the Minerva as she floated up to the front of the bridge as she pointed her weapon directly at the bridge. The crew was horrified, as it seemed the end had come for them, but at the last moment a beam gunshot took off the Blu Duel's right arm along with its beam gun the EA machine was holding before a second shot claimed her head.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Mudie shouted as Char arrived just in time in the Testament Gundam.

"Madam we detected another mobile suit…it's the Testament" Meyrin reported.

"Its Char" Athrun said as Meyrin was receiving a signal from the red machine.

"We are receiving an audio message from the Testament Gundam."

"Put it on the overhead speakers." Talia ordered.

"Attention ZAFT ship; it seems you are in need of assistance. Is there any chance I can be of some help?"

"Your assistance is welcomed Char Aznable." Gilbert Dullindal said as Haman commented to herself.

"I sensed you a mile away Char…that was good timing on your part."

Haman deployed all of her bits as she proceeded to pick apart the enemy machine as she shot off its arms before moving in to finish it off. Around the same time Amuro was facing a problem of his own as he guarded the DSSD ship. He unexpectedly came under attack from three unknown machines that the Justice Gundam's sensors could not identify.

"Three unknowns approaching? What are they?"

The Gundam pilot readied himself for a fight as the three machines entered the Gundam's line of sight giving him a look at the unknown machines.

The three mobile suits bore a likeness to the new Windam models, but there shoulder armor were slightly bulkier and their bodies boasted more thrusters and maneuvering jets on their bodies. They were completely black with three red diamonds on their shoulders and two on their forearms while the rest of their bodies were lined with dark blue with some red lining. As with most if not all mobile suits, these machines had fire-linked CIWS weapons mounted on the sides of their heads for close quarters combat.

In their hands they were armed with a high-powered beam rifle while on their hip armor they carried beam sabers, but on their backs they were equipped with a large backpack boasting a pair of dual recoilless cannons that hung over the shoulders near the head.

"I didn't sense them coming…are there even pilots in those things?" Amuro commented as the three mobile dolls advanced upon the Gundam. Reacting quickly Amuro fired several shots with the beam rifle, but to the pilot's surprise the diamonds on the free left hand of the enemy machines activated projecting a type of beam energy shield that deflected the beams.

Seeing the likely hood of the beam rifle not being much help; Amuro put away the weapon in favor of drawing one of the beam sabers while the Justice's other hand let go of its shield for a moment to grab hold of one of its beam boomerangs before hurling it at the enemy mobile dolls.

Although the mobile dolls evaded the beam boomerang they however broke formation leaving one open for Amuro to attack and cut in half with the beam saber before moving to engage the other two. Amuro had also reclaimed the shield and used it to block the beam rifle shots one of the enemy mobile dolls was raining down on the Gundam during its counterattack on the ZAFT machine.

Behind him the second mobile doll was aiming its dual cannons at the Justice Gundam, Amuro sensed the danger in time as he dropped down just as the mobile doll fired causing it to accidentally shoot its own ally in the stomach as it was using its free hand to draw its beam saber.

With one enemy mobile doll left, Amuro slammed into the enemy machine as the mobile doll's beam shield pressed against the shield of the Justice Gundam. As the Earth Federation ace pilot raised his beam saber up to stab the enemy machine, but the mobile doll ditched its beam rifle to draw one of its beam sabers to parry Amuro's strike.

To avoid taking damage from a counter attack the Justice kicked the enemy machine in the legs pushing itself away from the mobile doll at the same time to put some distance between them. Ditching the shield, Amuro drew the Gundam's second beam saber before combining them into one to form a dual ended beam saber to fight the mobile doll.

The two machines fought briefly for a few minutes as they exchanged blows with one another before pushing the enemy back leaving him open, but when the mobile doll blocked Amuro's strike with his beam saber Amuro quickly detached the second beam saber before plunging it into the stomach of the enemy machine.

With the last mobile doll destroyed as it exploded the ace pilot was wondering where did the odd mobile suits come from.

At that moment back in the debris field; Shinn was concerned between the Strike Noir and the Chaos Gundam as the two machines were about to launch a simultaneous attack on the Impulse Gundam when a grenade round fired from a beam rifle with a grenade launcher attachment hit the back of the Chaos Gundam stopping it in its tracks. Shinn turned and saw a red and black MS-14J ReGelg mobile suit approaching with beam rifle in hand and a beam saber activated in the other.

"Attention ZAFT pilot this is Admiral Anavel Gato of Neo Zeon Special Forces Delaz Team. Do you read me?"

"I read you loud and clear…where did you come from?" Shinn asked as he locked blades with Sven once more, as the two enemy pilots knew this new arrival wasn't a good sign.

"I am here under orders from Supreme Commander Nicholas Peacecraft to provide protection for your ship since Lady Haman is on board. Let's begin with the mop up."

"Yes sir"

Sven backed away after breaking his deadlock with the Impulse Gundam while at the same time he narrowly avoided having his machine's arms hacked off by Gato's beam saber before flying upwards to avoid getting shot by the Zeon ace pilot.

At that same moment as the Grity Lue was getting closer as Burt alerted everyone on the bridge of the ZAFT ship.

"Bogey-1. Distance: 150."

"All hands, brace for impact. Here we go! Starboard thrusters, full throttle!" Talia commanded.

"All starboard guns, fire!" Arthur ordered.

In a stunning explosion from the starboard guns and the activation of the reaming thrusters sent the Minerva flying free of asteroid and sent them on a head on collision course with the Girty Lue. The ship was shaking, as it was moving towards the enemy ship with pieces of the asteroid floating around it. Rey and Kurei were both surprised as Talia was taking this opportunity to fight back against the enemy ship.

"Rotate 30 degrees! Fire on Bogey-1!"

"Tannhauser, target: Bogey-1!" Arthur shouted as the ZAFT battleship most powerful weapon was armed and ready for firing. On the bridge of the Girty Lue, Ian saw the danger they were now in as shouted without hesitation.

"Evade! Hard to port!"

With very little time to get out of the Minerva's line of fire; Talia gave the order to fire as the ship's Tannhauser Positron Blaster Cannon fired on the enemy vessel vaporizing everything caught in its path. Fortunately, the Girty Lue managed to almost evade the deadly beam, but it ripped pass along the side of the ship damaging the engines and other areas of the ship. As the two ships passed, Kurei recalled his mobile attack pods after Rey destroyed two of them.

"To think they would come back to life from that situation!" Kurei said with a thin smile as he saw that Ian was issuing recall flares to Stellar, Sting and the others. Before leaving he said. "I look forward to meeting up with you again someday...boy. And all of your ZAFT friends!"

"Damn. It's over and we only got two kills." Auel complained as he saw the recall flares, but Sting only said.

"No choice. Stellar, Neo is calling us. He's saying, come back quickly. With this new guy here that means reinforcements are not far behind we have to go now."

"Yeah."

Sting, Sven, Auel and Stellar were barely able to escape Gato and Shinn as the four mobile suit wasted no time escaping while Mudie barely managed to get back to the fleeing Alliance ship while Kurei was able to quickly help Shams escape Haman before being shot down. The battle was over as the enemy quickly fled the scene.

On the bridge of the badly damaged Minerva, Malik informed the captain of their enemy's status. "Bogey-1 is retreating." Following his report, Meyrin also had some news to inform the captain about Shinn and Lunamaria's mobile suits. Following her would be Arthur with some bad news.

"Power is dangerously low for Impulse and Lunamaria's unit."

"Captain! Engine two and the port heat sensors were damaged in the explosion earlier."

"Captain Gladys. That's enough. We'll just think of another strategy. I don't think it's acceptable to put Representative Athha at risk any further either." Gilbert said since he knew all but too well that pursing them would be pointless now seeing the shape the ship was in.

"Please forgive me."

"Please accept our apologies, Representative Athha." Gilbert said with a straight expression.

"Don't concern yourselves with us. Although, I agree that it's unfortunate for it to end like this. I pray from my heart for a quick resolution."

"Thank you."

Meanwhile back on their ship; Charles watched the last moments of the battle as their recon force was already beginning to leave the area with Gato's arrival and the force of Neo Zeon troops not too far behind him.

"That was an unexpected turn of events, but quite a entertaining display nevertheless. I am certain our leader will find the data we collected to be very interesting."

"I still want to go out there and put Char in his grave." Johnny said bitterly.

"Relax…you'll get your chance soon enough, but for now its best if we leave this area and report to the main fleet."

A short time later as the Neo Zeon Forces under Gato's command had joined up with the Minerva and the DSSD ship commanded by Char. The respective leaders of the two vessels had boarded the Minerva to meet with Chairman Dullindal and Lady Haman Karn while crews from both ships were offering their services to repair the damaged vessel.

As the group consisting of Gilbert, Talia, Heero, Cagalli and Athrun was traveling down the halls of the ship heading towards the pilot briefing room to meet with Gato and Char. Enroute to the room Gilbert had some news for the company from Orb.

"At long last, we have made contact with the homeland."

"Relief and an investigation team are already on their way to Armory One, so I have requested that one of their ships to be sent here to retrieve you." Talia informed Cagalli as she replied.

"Thank you."

"Although, a little while ago we were saved thanks to him, were we not? Captain." Gilbert said as he was praising Athrun as the Captain hesitantly agreed.

"Uh…yes."

"Amazing, isn't it? The power of those of those who have been through countless fierce battles." Gilbert said as Athrun modestly replied.

"No. I overstepped my bounds. Please forgive me."

"Your judgment was correct. Thank you. Well, then." Talia said as the group stopped in front of the door leading into the briefing room. Cagalli and Gilbert were allowed to enter first where inside Char and Anavel Gato were waiting for them, but an even bigger surprise was that on their way Athrun had learned that another pilot flew the Justice Gundam with Char to the Minerva while during the earlier battle it had been used to defend his ship as the Red Comet protected the Minerva.

Apparently the pilot took down a trio of mobile doll units that may have been with the enemy ship had sent out during the battle to use to launch an attack on the Minerva although they had no way to confirm if those three machines really did come from the Girty Lue, but the pilot at the controls of the Justice caught them and then quickly made short work of them despite their armaments. The pilot was also present with Gato and Char and the group was engaged in a conversation before the late arrivals entered.

"Admiral Gato and Char Aznable I thank you both on the behalf of ZAFT and the PLANTs for your assistance." Gilbert said humbly as Char nodded his head in a short polite bow as Gato saluted him. "And who is this may I ask?"

"This is Amuro Ray." Char said as he introduced the hero of the One Year War.

"Amuro…the same guy you fought against in the One Year War back in your world?" Athrun asked as he recognized the name.

"The same" Char replied.

"I never thought I would encounter him." Gato commented. "However I am interested to hear more about the circumstances that brought him here later on?"

Heero remained silent as Haman entered the room.

"Well Gato I don't recall requesting for any aid."

"I know…it was Supreme Commander Peacecraft he requested that my unit come here to provide protection."

Haman seemed almost insulted by the gesture. "I didn't require back up to deal with some Gundam thieves."

"Its wasn't to protect you from them Lady Haman…our orders were to guard you in case the force of Mars Zeon ships that we detected were lurking nearby decided to join the battle and attack."

"What?"

"We received word that an force of ships our forces in the area had detected were from Mars Zeon's forces. We were unsure of their intentions so Supreme Commander Peacecraft ordered my unit to join up with the Minerva to provide protection in the event that had planned to assassinate you."

Haman seemed a little surprised that members of the traitorous Mars Zeon faction had been sighted in this region of space, but she knew it was only a matter of time before that some of their forces would make their way here.

"So Glemy Toto is finally moving against me."

"Glemy Toto?" Heero asked.

"He become leader of the Mars Zeon Faction after the original leaders were killed during the coup against Lady Haman and her loyalist forces." Gato explained.

"Does Neo Zeon have any idea to what the ships of his faction were doing here?"

"Judging from their recent actions they are probably part of a recon force observing and gauging the military strength of ZAFT and the Alliance." Gato replied.

"That is very troubling…first the incident at Armory one and now this?" Gilbert began, as he didn't like where this was going.

"War is coming…what happened is the just the beginning." Heero said grimly.

"But the peace treaty."

"It's just a written agreement…Blue Cosmos and even surviving members of the anti-Natural factions are still around. You should have seen this coming Cagalli as the others and I have. I am afraid this spark is the prelude to an inferno." Heero added an unpleasant silent fell upon the room. Meanwhile somewhere deep in space sitting atop a golden lined chair styled to be similar to a throne sat a man with blonde curly hair dressed in a black uniform with a cape. The man was gazing out at the stars through an observation window.

"Space is so quiet…no matter what a sound cannot be heard, but yet the drums of war shall be heard soon." Glemy Toto said darkly as he took a slip from a wine glass he held. Meanwhile at Junius Seven; Paptimus Scirocco was discreetly leaving the sight of Junius Seven as the lingering members of the Patrick Zala faction was busy putting the final touches on the colony remains in final preparations before sending it on a collision course to Earth.

"The stage is now set…let history now take its course and the real Operation Meteor for the final time be carried out."

A/N: A special thanks goes to RaveDrifter for the characters Charles Bluestone and Ryan Feffer.


	8. Chapter 8 Symphony of Destruction

A/N: I apologize this took longer to complete than expected and that was due to my laptop dying on me, but I am back on track now so the updates should start flowing again.

Chapter 8

Symphony of Destruction

Aboard the personal battleship and flagship of Nicholas Peacecraft the Napoleon; the young military commander was seated at a small gold and white porcelain table where a posh chess set sat before him with ivory-white limestone carved white chess pieces in front of him while the black pieces were made out of polished onyx. The rest of the board was made out of crystal lined with silver and gold, but on the other side of the chess table sat another man who was a bit older than the military commander of Axis.

"Tell me something…why me? Surely someone like you would be well aware of my reputation and my way of doing things."

"Simple" Nicholas replied with a smile as he moved a white pawn forward as the two men began a game of chess. "Because you are like me, someone who can manipulate and control events from behind the scenes while remaining unknown for the most part. I need someone like you for what is to come?"

"What do you mean by that?" The man replied as he moved a black piece forward.

"My enemies and those I must work against know me too well and are watching me more carefully, so that is where you come in. I need someone who is unknown to them, but can control and guide key situations and events I need handled for the sake of our success and brining peace in the future."

"And you think it's wise to entrust such a responsibility to me?"

"I have calculated the risks, but I am positive that you can handle this task and you haven't given me a reason not to trust you since we began working together when I made you head of military intelligence and its special ops division along with its black operations department. Unless of course there is something you want to share with me?"

"No sir…it was a question that had to be asked."

"I see, but in any event one of your tasks I am assigning to you will be the safe guarding of Lacus Clyne."

"Why her, don't tell me you have feelings for her still?"

"No it's nothing like that" Nicholas brushed aside with a chuckle. "You see my plans for the future depend on her continued survival. I know a plot to remove her from the grand scheme of things is being prepared and if I act on this then our allies may grow suspicious. That is where you come in…you can operate and handle this without alerting ZAFT since you are an unknown element to them. They know nothing about you or what skills and talents you possess. Not to mention the unlimited resources I have now granted you access to as the newly appointed leader of White Fang."

The unknown visitor considered everything he had been told for a few moments before giving his answer. "I'll help you, but I want to know everything…what are you planning this time? It sounds like you are actually planning to go against our allies, but you only don't want them to know about it?"

"Very good…I knew I picked the right man for the job."

"So I am a damn pawn now?"

"A pawn" Nicholas actually laughed at that remark. ", don't think so little of yourself. You're a player now Knight…welcome to the big leagues." Nicholas said with a smile as he moved another pawn forward while his associate did the same as their game was beginning to pick up the pace. "Alright Aloysius I'll tell you everything." Nicholas Peacecraft began as he explained his intentions and plans to his recently appointed Director of Military Intelligence and the new leader of White Fang; Aloysius Knight.

Meanwhile somewhere in the debris belt aboard the Minerva; Haman sat at one corner of the briefing room table as she along with everyone gathered consisting of Heero, Gato, Gilbert, Char, Amuro, Athrun, Cagalli and Captain Gladys discussing the current situation and the appearance of Mars Zeon.

"First the Gundams at Armory One are stolen by an unknown group of military trained individuals and now Mars Zeon has been seen poking around in the area." Gilbert said before adding. "I fear the situation is going to get worse depending on how Mars Zeon acts in this region."

"I agree" Char said with a nod.

"So tell me Amuro Ray how is it that you arrived here?" Haman inquired.

"I believe as the regent of Axis you should remember when the Axis Advance Fleet in the company of some reinforcements from Axis that had seemed to appear out of nowhere about two years ago. During Operation Stardust that was being carried out by Admiral Delaz. As his surviving forces were trying to escape the area after dropping a colony onto Earth a red mobile suit appeared, armed with a beam sword and a whip and virtually destroyed the entire Federation Pursuit fleet single-handily with the aid of the reinforcement units that had followed him."

"Epyon!" Athrun said as he heard that mobile suit the dreaded Gundam of Nicholas Peacecraft had been restored. "I thought Epyon was destroyed?"

"Heavily damaged yes, but…we used what was left to completely rebuild the Epyon. Now it's stronger and possesses vastly superior combat capabilities than the original model."

"But the treaty?" Cagalli snapped.

"The treaty doesn't say anything about Gundams specifically…Epyon doesn't use a nuclear reactor so it's completely legal for Axis to have."

"I still can't believe you rebuilt that damn machine." Athrun added.

"It was inevitable…Epyon is Nicholas's sword and it's the ideal weapon for him. Especially with all of its lovely new upgrades, but we're straying from the main subject…please continue Amuro." Haman said as she gestured for Amuro to continue.

"As I was saying after Epyon crushed the Federation Pursuit fleet active search parties were deployed to every corner of the Earth Sphere trying to find them, but almost after two years of searching they were never found until the ship I was on along with our commanding officer Commodore Blex Forer and a few others." Amuro paused to take a breath.

"We searched the moon, more specifically the region where they were last detected in before disappearing…we eventually came across a weak signal we were detecting far underground. We found a cave that took us deep underground before we came across what appeared to be a tear in the very fabric of space."

Everyone with the exception of Haman, Char, Gato and Amuro were surprised.

"You mean there is a tear, a portal to your version of Earth on the moon?" Talia inquired.

"That is correct captain…we discovered it while Axis was scouting for ideal places to establish mining facilities. We not only established our mine facilities in its immediate area, but we have a garrison there as well to not only guard the facility, but to also keep an armed watch over the tear if anyone or anything ever came through." Haman said as she confirmed what Amuro and even Athrun had added.

"But what made you guys go through?" Cagalli inquired.

"While we were exploring the cave…another ship tailing us began attacking the cave entrance trying to bring the entire cavern down on top of us. We suspect it was commanded by men from the Titans organization."

"Titans?" Athrun asked.

Titans…are an elite counter-insurgency group formed by the Earth Federation in response to the disastrous events from Operation Stardust, where a few of you already know was when the Federation lost a third of its fleet during its naval review to a tactical nuclear attack perpetrated by radical Principality of Zeon loyalists." Blex Forer said as he stepped into the room after he was escorted from the hanger to the briefing room by Arthur.

"Commodore Forer" Amuro began.

"The Federation government decided to form an elite special operation unit whose sole purpose is to hunt down renegade Zeon supporters and anti-Federation insurgents. Created and formed by Jamitov Hymem. Although they do their job well to a degree, but they are taking an extreme and radical stance against anyone who speaks out against the Earth Federation, effetely they are a fascist military force that has the ability to act outside the limit of the Federation's supervision allowing them to commit a number of atrocities and get away with it."

"I knew something like that would happen considering the corruption within the Federation." Gato commented.

"Forgive me for being late there were a few issues that had to be worked out. I am Commodore Blex Forer of the Earth Federation." Blex greeted as he saluted.

"Welcome aboard Commodore I am Supreme Chairman Gilbert Dullindal and this Captain Talia Gladys." Gilbert said as he gestured towards the female captain while at the same time he gestured towards Athrun, Heero and Cagalli. "And this is Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha of the Orb Union with her bodyguards Alex Dino and Heero Yuy."

"It's a pleasure Chairman…I take it Amuro and Char have already filled you in."

"Yes"

"Well there are a few more details."

Meanwhile at that moment in another corner of the ship; Shinn, Lunamaria and Rey were in the crewmen's lounge along with their friends Meyrin, Vino and Yolant. The gathered friends were sitting at one of the large tables by the vending machines as the pilots were resting from their gurgling battle against the thieves from Armory One.

"I can't believe it…you a student of Heero Yuy the freakin pilot of Wing Zero." Vino said as he and along with other members of the crew had learned about Lunamaria's past relation with Heero.

"Well yeah…I piloted the Tallgeese III during the Second Battle of Jachin Due."

"Bullshit" Shinn said.

"Want me to show you some of the close-quarters combat moves Heero showed me." Luna said with a grin while she eyed Shinn dangerously.

As the group was talking about recent events a certain young blue haired boy walked into lounge and began trying to work the machine, but was having a little bit of difficulty. Luna took notice of the boy's troubles and decided to help him. She walked over and gave Kamille Bidan a quick hand and grabbed a canned drink from the machine.

"Thanks" Kamille replied.

"Oh there you are" Chris said as she stepped into the lounge. "You have to stay close Kamille I don't really know my way around the ship so I don't want to have to look for you."

"Kamille, that's a girl's name."

Before Chris could do anything; Kamille lunged and tackled Shinn to the ground pounding away with his fists. The young newtype was on the coordinator like a pit-bull on a mailman as he continued hammering away at him. Shinn began fighting back and before anyone knew it a small lounge room brawl had broken out.

"Damn it Shinn!" Lunamaria said as she stepped in to put a stop to it while Rey and everyone else was about to do the same.

But in a few moments Luna pulled Kamille off of Shinn, but when the young man tried to resume his attack Luna floored Kamille by quickly tripping him while at the same time Shinn tried to get a few more punches in on the young man got swiftly and painfully floored by the young woman with a clothesline shot to the neck and a elbow jab to the stomach.

Chris grabbed the angry newtype and hauled him away while Rey and Yolant restrained Shinn to prevent the brawl from continuing.

"Wow sister you took care of that fast."

"At least someone has maintained their close-quarters combat skills." A voice said as all eyes fell on the doorway where Heero Yuy along with Cagalli and Athrun were standing there. Everyone then noticed Heero momentary shoot Cagalli a glare before turning his attention back to Lunamaria.

"Heero"

"Lunamaria…I heard you preformed well today. I am glad to hear your skills as a pilot have remained in top form."

"Yeah, but I wish I had the Tallgeese for this. I got an ear full from Head Technician Aves from wearing out and damaging the motors inside my ZAKU. He says I was being way too hard on it."

"That's understandable…the Tallgeese series mobile suits were built as the wild horses of mobile suits. They were not designed with the safety of the pilot in mind so not only a skilled pilot could handle them, but that pilot would have to be physically tough and resilient."

"Whoa the Legendary Heero Yuy" Yolant muttered under his breath.

"I am hardly legendary…I am just very good at what I do." Heero replied with a stern expression.

"So what's going on now? I take it you guys were in a meeting with Chairman?" Luna inquired.

"It seems we'll be stuck here for awhile, the Minerva suffered some considerable damage. However with Char's friends from the DSSD and Gato's men from AXIS here we should be alright. Crews from both ships are chipping in with repairs and spare parts."

"I see, but what about those guys who stole the new machines?"

"Right now we have some suspicions where they came from, but for right now other teams in the vicinity are on the lookout for them in the meantime." Heero replied.

Speaking of which, the Girty Lue was currently lurking in another corner of the debris belt where the ship was hiding inside the remains of an old colony. Due to the damage the ship had received from the Minerva during their last encounter the sheath battleship had to make repairs to its starboard engines before they could make their journey back to the Daedalus lunar base.

Sitting in his office cleaning the lenses of his mask with a cleaning cloth; Kurei Gungnir was alone in thought while focused on his task. His thoughts were momentary interrupted when he audio communication alert was beeping on his desk.

"Yes" Kurei said after moving his right index finger onto the button opening communications.

"Sir" Ian Lee's voice began. "We got word from the techs…repairs will done in a couple days or so, but we have the mobile suits back up and running. The engines had suffered more internal damage than we had thought."

"I think we're safe for the moment, but its likely ZAFT may have their forces on the lookout for us. Until all repairs are complete I want this ship on yellow alert."

"Understood sir?"

After Kurei ended communications he laid back in his chair and sighed as he reached under his shirt and pulled out a silver chain that not only held his dog tags, but a silver ring. His eyes looked upon the ring sadly as his thoughts wandered and settled on the image of a young woman with long pink hair and light blue eyes.

"When this is over I will return to you, but first…I must take care of the men behind Blue Cosmos."

Another memory came to him…one that was about almost two years ago as he recalled waking up in a bed that sat in the middle of a small room with nothing but medical equipment and a life support monitoring system on one side of the room. His chest and right arm was covered in bandages and he had a few bandages wrapped around his head.

Minutes later after waking up the door opened and a familiar face entered the room.

"So you're finally awake Mr. Yamato?"

"Who are you?" Kira asked weakly as his injuries despite his treatment for them still hurt.

"My name is Paptimus Scirocco."

"You" Kira said as he began trying to get up to attack, but discovered that he had been strapped to the bed using thick leather straps.

"Please Mr. Yamato you have nothing to worry about…I had really wanted you to die I would have let you to drift helplessly through space. You can relax I mean you no harm."

"What do you want?" Kira snapped.

"Actually I wanted to ask you, what do you want?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Exactly as it meant. Your actions along with those of your friends have made it possible for the peaceful factions on both sides to begin working towards a peace accord to end the war. But only your efforts have brought are a moment of breathing for everyone. However" Paptimus stopped for a moment allowing his words to trail off for a moment.

"However" Kira inquired as he grew impatient.

"What do you intend to do about the ones who begin wars for the sake of business?"

"What"

"You may not have realized this, but besides those who waged this war for race superiority…there are others who helped spark this war so they could make large sums of profit. True Blue Cosmos had a hand in the creation of the conflict that engulfed the world, but the true minds behind it are a group of men collectively known as Logos the Merchants of Death."

Kira Yamato…now Kurei Gungnir pushed the rest of that unpleasant thought out of his mind. Returning the present Kira intended to carry out his intentions now that he was sure the success of this mission would bring him close to the ones he sought within the Logos organization.

"Don't worry Lacus…I'll return as soon as this is done."

Meanwhile aboard the Minerva inside one of the officer cabins; Haman Karn was sitting on the bed while with her in the room was Gato.

"My lady if the portal has been discovered then"

"The cave was sealed on the other side…I trust you saw the report we got from our men when they examined the area on the other side." Haman said cutting Gato off.

"Then what do we do about these Federation soldiers?"

Haman gave it some thought before answering.

"Let them be…in fact they might prove useful."

"Useful" Gato was at for once a loss for words.

"Perhaps they can be our chaos factor we'll introduce to Gilbert's plan."

A couple days later a ZAFT observation post near the PLANTs; the operators aboard began detecting unusual movement from a very large object in the debris belt. A pair of men was standing behind a sensor operator as they were monitoring the movement of Junius Seven, which much to the surprise to everyone present was beginning to move out of its stable orbit.

"What…that can't be right?"

"No sir, I checked it several times. Look here this one is from two hours ago. Even through its slight you can defiantly tell its moving."

"That's impossible…Junius Seven is supposed to be in a stable orbit."

It didn't take long for word of Junius Seven's movement to spread and reach the ears of ZAFT's high officials who in turn was relaying the news to their Supreme Chairman. Aboard his ship the Napoleon; a crewmember at the communication control center intercepted a message.

"Captain…we just intercepted a priority alert from the PLANT homeland."

"That was easy?" The captain said as he made his way over to the crewman.

"They weren't really trying to hide this one. This was being sent out to all ships currently out on deployment and patrol missions…apparently something is going on."

"Well what it is then?"

The crewman and the captain began reading the alert before they were worried by the news. "Wake the Supreme Commander!"

Aboard the Minerva; Athrun was up early and was walking down the corridors making his way to the lounge. When he arrived he found someone else had awoken early that same morning.

"Good morning Athrun?"

"You're up early Luna?" Athrun said as he greeted the eldest Hawke sister.

"Well you got my wonderful mobile suit teacher to thank for that." Lunamaria mused as she sat down at a table opposite of Athrun.

Athrun couldn't help but laugh at that one…he remember all but too well how much of a tough as nails instructor he was. Cagalli and Luna had always been on the verge of dropping on the ground after making it through a day of Heero's harsh training sessions even through Zechs with some help from Char tried to keep Heero from accidently killing them with his teaching methods.

"For a long time Cagalli always kept awaking up very early in the morning."

"So how have you two been doing?"

"Well things have been uneventful?" Athrun replied.

"Nothing much…I was kinda expecting more since you're the bodyguard of the Chief Representative of the Orb Union."

"Well aside from the usual political mess she has been dealing with…Cagalli has had her hands full with a lot of issues."

"Here I thought being leader of country sounded fun." Luna mused.

"It's not exactly an easy job…defiantly not something you want to get lazy on either. But that is one job I wouldn't want."

"No argument, but I really meant how are you and Cagalli as a couple? You guys were hitting it off pretty well the last time I saw you." Luna said as she noticed a change in Athrun's expression. It didn't take much to figure out that something was up between them.

"Well"

"Something wrong isn't it?"

"Well apparently her father and Prime Minster Unato Ema Seiran had arranged a long time ago that Cagalli was going to marry Unato's son Yuna Roma Seiran."

"A politically arranged marriage"

Athrun nodded his head.

"Oh...Athrun I am so sorry."

"I am unable to do anything about it…right now Unato and his son has more control over Orb than Cagalli does. The administration running Orb isn't the same people who supported Lord Uzumi's ideals…in fact they seem more interested in their own interests and what they can gain. The only one who retains and upholds Uzumi's ideals is Zechs, but even these days he is fighting a losing battle with those men." Athrun said as Luna saw that events in Orb weren't as uneventful as Athrun had originally claimed. It seemed everything was going downhill for him.

"I am sorry Athrun, but…I wish there was something I could do?"

"Thanks, but this one is out of our hands."

Lunamaria thought now would be a good time to change subjects as she said "Yeah I hear ya, but how about Lacus, Murrue, Andrew and the others?"

"Well Murrue and Andrew have a place on the main island, but Lacus." Athrun began, but Luna noticed the young man's expression sadden again.

_Damn it Luna…you can't do anything right to cheer this guy up. _Lunamaria thought to herself.

"Lacus hasn't been the same since Kira went MIA. She has hardly spoken and has been more withdrawn." Athrun said he it was clear from the expression on his face that he was worried about Lacus's welfare.

Lunamaria felt like punching herself for doing the opposite of what she had attempted to do.

Meanwhile on the bridge of the ship as repair crews were just finishing with the last few repairs required on the engines and ship's hull an emergency message for the Supreme Chairman was received sent directly from the PLANT homeland.

Aboard his own ship Char was up early as he was going over reports he was receiving through the communication station on the bridge of his ship, but one report he received worried the Red Comet. He wasted no time making his way to his command chair as he made an announcement to the entire ship and everyone aboard.

"Attention all crewmembers; I want all officers to the bridge immediately."

"What's going on?" Amuro asked as he rushed onto the bridge.

"We got a report from a DSSD surveillance station, Junius Seven is moving…it's on a collision course for Earth."

It didn't take long for all involved parties to convene and meet aboard the Minerva as the three ships received word of Junius Seven heading for Earth. Gilbert Dullindal along with Captain Gladys and Char along with Amuro and Commodore Blex with Heero, Athrun and Cagalli were all gathered with Haman and Gato present of course.

"What…Junius Seven is moving?"

"Yes princess I am afraid reports from surveillance stations belonging to ZAFT and the DSSD have confirmed it. At its present course Junius Seven will collide into the Earth in a matter of hours."

"What are the PLANTs going to do about it?" Amuro inquired.

"Axis will be offering its aid in this terrible crisis that faces the Earth, Gato and his men will assist in the demolition of Junius Seven." Haman noted.

"Demolition?" Cagalli asked.

"Junius Seven is too big to alter its course away from Earth so our only option is to break it up." Char answered. "We don't have the time or the resources to do otherwise."

"I have already spoken to the council and they National Defense Committee has already dispatched what ships we could carrying Meteor Breakers to the site to begin work to demolish the falling colony. At the same time the countries of Earth are being warned about the impending danger." Gilbert added.

"But what will happen it Junius Seven collides with the Earth?"

"I don't think anyone here needs to explain the damage an object of that size could cause to the planet." Heero pointed out.

"All the more reason we must do our upmost to prevent this disaster." Char added.

"If there is anything Orb can do to help just ask Chairman." Cagalli said as the leader of the PLANTs bowed his head forward.

"We'll gracious accept any help we can Princess the more manpower we have for this operation the better."

"This ship will be heading to Junius Seven as soon as all final engine checks are completed." Talia announced.

"We'll prep the machines on our ship for deployment to assist the demolition crews." Char offered.

"We'll do the same" Gato added.

"Thank you gentlemen on the behalf of the PLANT homeland for your assistance in this hour of peril the Earth faces."

Unknown to the three ships…lurking somewhere nearby was another Mirage-Colloid cloaked battleship hiding amongst the debris and floating remains of old spaceships as the crew on the bridge of the vessel was busy at their stations while the commander of the craft sat in his chair next to the captain wearing a light blue business suit with a plum collar shirt and matching tie.

"Well, well, well Junius Seven is on its way to Earth." Muruta Azrael commented as he read the reports he was receiving from various outposts and information feeds the ship was hacking into while trying to remain hidden from the other vessels in the area. "I wonder how Earth will survive this disaster."

"Sir we got word from our man at the mansion that the Logos leaders have agreed to take shelter for now and plan a counterattack using this coming disaster to push for war."

"Of course they are…this is a golden opportunity for them, but its mines as well." Azrael said darkly. "Very soon my dear half-brother will reach our location with the brand new anti-Gundam weapon Orb has produced…once I have it I'll soon be ready to reclaim my place. No…I'll take over Logos and seize control." Azrael said as he began laughing manically.

The former leader of Blue Cosmos was ready to emerge from his exile.

Meanwhile back at December City; Paptimus Scirocco returned to the PLANT homeland discreetly after providing assistance to Sato and his men. The newtype was pleased to hear Junius Seven's movement was detected and with it everything was falling into place. All he had to do now after his hard work of preparing and motivating Sato and his men to carry out the original Operation Meteor approved by Chairman Zala was lay back in his chair and enjoy the show.

His only regret was not being there to see it all unfold, but the newtype reasoned that he had worked hard to get everything to where it was needed to be so he deserved his rest. But another pleasant thought filled his mind as he knew his agent was soon going to have opportunities to carry out his intended task of culling the highest ranks of Logos.

At that same moment inside his cabin; Nicholas Peacecraft was laying back in his chair as well listening to the sound of a waltz playing on his desk. As he listened he mused to himself.

"The second step peace has reached its end…now we begin the third step, revolution."

A/N: special thank you to SWGS fan for the use of his character who will be appearing as the pilot of Anubis and as well as special thanks to Pacifism Is For The Birds for his character along with two others who will be appearing in this fic. They are going to make things very interesting for everyone. I also I want to thank them and everyone else who has continued to help and support this story. Next chapter will be coming soon.


	9. Chapter 9 Collapsing World

A/N: at last an update…sorry the holidays were very brutal for me this year. Not to mention I had some fanfic ideas I wanted off my chest too, but anyway here is the new chapter…enjoy.

Chapter 9

Collapsing World

Three hours later on the far side of the debris belt as Junius Seven was moving through space heading towards the Earth's atmosphere slowly, but it was gradually picking up speed. Catching up to the remains of the PLANT colony were two Nazca class ships, both under the command of one certain silver haired commander with his best friend by his side.

On the bridge of the Voltaire; Yzak Jule and his friend and right hand man Dearka Elsman were looking upon the moving remains of Junius Seven as crews inside the hanger were preparing Meteor Breakers to deploy along with the mobile suit squads getting ready for deployment.

"Alright have the mobile suit squads head out to Junius Seven as soon as they are ready. We got here with plenty of time so let's make sure we make every second count." Yzak ordered.

"Yes sir" A crewman replied from his station as he relayed his superior officer's orders to the pilots on the hanger deck.

"That thing is massive…do you think we could destroy it in time?"

"Don't start wimping out on me Dearka."

"I am…I was just commenting on its size reflecting how important our mission is."

"Whatever, head out there and supervise the men. The Minerva and those other two ships should be here soon so we should have plenty of extra hands, but I don't want to see anyone slacking off on this mission you got that."

"No problem sir, leave it to me." Dearka said with an assuring smile before he left the bridge.

A distance away the three vessels led by the Minerva were heading straight for Junius Seven on an intercept course. Inside the Minerva crew lounge the gathered crewmembers and pilots were already discussing events surrounding Junius Seven's descent and how they were going to deal with it.

"How did it start moving?" Vino asked.

"Maybe a meteor hit it or maybe something from outside that altered the orbit." Yolant answered.

"So is that thing really on a collision course with Earth?" Shinn inquired.

"Yeah that's what Burt told me." Meyrin replied.

"First the raid on Armory One and before that mess can even be settled this happens? What is going on?" Lunamaria asked herself. "Well if Junius Seven is moving then what do we do about it?"

"Just break it up." Rey answered when no one else in the room said anything else. "Listen it's impossible to change its orbit, so if you want to stop it from striking Earth then break it up."

"But it's huge…even if you break it in half that is still eight kilometers." Yolant pointed out.

"How do you smash something that big?" Vino added.

"What about all of the victims…its filled with the bodies of those who died." Meyrin pointed out grimly.

"But if it hits Earth will be annihilated." Rey pointed out firmly. "If that happens then nothing will be left…even living or dead."

"Earth destroyed" Vino said as an uneasy silence fell upon the group.

"That's right" Yolant included followed up with Meyrin adding her own comment.

"How awful"

"Oh well if it's meant to be then it's meant to be. It's out of our hands, but look on the bright side this will take care of a lot of hassles…things will be way better on the PLANTs for now on."

"How can you say those things?" Cagalli snapped as she entered the lounge overhearing their discussion from the hall. "If it was meant to be, things will be better. Don't you know what will happen to Earth…don't you realize how serious this is? Don't you know how many people are going to die? Don't you know what you are saying?"

"I am sorry" Yolant offered.

"Is this what people from ZAFT are saying? Is this what they think? We all lived through that terrible war and we suffered through it. I thought things were changing within the PLANTs under Chairman Dullindal or am I missing something." Cagalli shouted, but Athrun stepped in holding her arm.

"That's enough Cagalli"

"Yolant was only kidding you know, don't you understand a simple joke when you hear one?" Shinn said as he shot a glare at Cagalli.

"How dare you?" Cagalli snapped.

"Shinn…watch what you say?" Rey warned.

"Oh I almost forgot she is come kind of VIP from Orb." Shinn mocked sarcastically.

"Why you!" Cagalli said as she struggled to break free of Athrun's grip.

"Control yourself Cagalli" Athrun insisted before stepping in front of her to talk to Shinn. "You seem to have some kind of grudge against Orb…may I ask why? You used to live there I understand, but if you are looking for a trivial excuse to drag the Representative into a fight over an irrelevant issue."

"Trivial I won't allow anyone to call it trivial and it's not irrelevant. I lost my entire family because of the Athhas. They believed in the nation and Orb's so called ideals, but in the end they were killed at Onogoro." Shinn shot a glare Cagalli carrying strong signs of hate and malice in his eyes. "That is why I'll never believe a word you say and I'll never believe in Orb or your self-serving lies again. When you said you were going to uphold justice did you think about all of people who would die because you insisted on following your values to the end."

Cagalli was shocked by this revelation as she Shinn finished by saying.

"I wish people who didn't understand anything didn't talk like they did?" Shinn walked passed Cagalli rudely bumping her before leaving the lounge with Vino following right after him. But that was it for Cagalli…her patience and her restraint had reached their limit.

"I do understand I lost my father and a lot of my friends during that day!" Cagalli snapped. "That doesn't make you special."

Shinn stopped as he turned back at Cagalli.

"You bitch" Shinn snapped as he started walking back towards Cagalli, realizing a fight was inevitable between these two Athrun and Luna were about to step in and stop them. Fortunately someone else beat them to the punch…before Shinn could throw the first punch he was pulled back when someone grabbed hold of his collar. Heero stepped between the two as the Gundam pilot shot the young woman his signature death glare stopping the young woman in her tracks.

"I thought I had taught you restraint?" Heero said as he locked eyes with his student.

Cagalli quickly regained control of herself in the light of being stared down by Heero.

"I am sorry"

But Heero wasn't done yet as he turned to face Shinn as he shot him the same glare.

"And you…the fact that you lost your parents on Onogoro Island doesn't excuse your behavior. You should feel ashamed to even wear that uniform…a real soldier doesn't allow his emotions to get the better of him or seek to pick a fight over a matter that can never be changed. Your parents are dead…nothing you do will change it. Move on" Heero said firmly…but that statement only angered the young coordinator even more.

But before it could go any further Luna stepped in and gave Shinn a rather painful pinch on his rear stopping the young man in his tracks, but surprising everyone else (with the exception of Heero) by her sudden action.

"Ok that's enough Shinn…do you really want to die over this?"

"Damn it Luna"

"Uh sister why did you pinch Shinn like that?" Meyrin began asking.

"What"

As the two sisters continued their discussion Heero turned and followed Cagalli and Athrun out of the room after he was certain Shinn wasn't going to continue the argument especially after that unexpected maneuver by Lunamaria. It was an odd move, but it ended the agreement more peacefully than Heero possibly could without harming Shinn if the young pilot decided to keep pushing the subject further.

Meanwhile in another corner of the debris belt near Junius Seven as it was continuing its descent towards Earth; a black Girty Lue-class battleship dropped its Mirage Colloid cloak as its hanger doors began to open. Approaching the vessel was the ZGMF-X666A Anubis fresh from its theft from Onogoro Island and making its way into space using a concealed booster kept on one of the nearby islands outside their territory allowing the mobile suit to make its way into space.

After docking inside the hanger of the battleship; Azrael was making his way over to the newly acquired Gundam as he was eagerly awaiting the pilot to disembark from the machine. Upon reaching the slumbering Anubis as engineers and technicians were swarming over the stolen Orb Gundam to begin the required data extraction and examination of the machine.

Azrael waited until the pilot exited the machine…the blonde haired man wearing a black trench coat approached the former head of Blue Cosmos before sharing a…brotherly hug with him.

"Welcome back brother" Azrael said as he welcomed his younger step-brother Derek Azrael aboard his ship.

"It's good to see you again…as you can see I was successful in acquiring the target."

"Good job Derek I knew you wouldn't let me down. Did you create a mess at Onogoro as our friends in Orb requested?"

"Of course…I left quite the mess as they requested during my escape with their newly built Gundam. Several key members of the administrative government at the facility at the time were killed just as the Seiran family wanted thanks to arrangements on their end that ensured that they were there at the time of my theft of the Anubis. Now once their own people are filling those positions they will have enough control over the government to reduce Uzumi's daughter from chief representative to a pretty figurehead."

"I have no doubt they'll be pleased."

Azrael patted his brother on the back. "It's good to know I have at least one person in my family I can still count on."

"Thank you brother"

"Anyway rest up while they look over our newly acquired Gundam. It seems something is going on in the debris belt."

"Really?"

"Yes…it seems Junius Seven is falling out of orbit and its heading straight for Earth…even as we speak."

"Are you serious? How did that happen?"

"I don't know, but we're going to find out. ZAFT has apparently dispatched some of their ships with Meteor Breakers to break apart Junius Seven."

"Do you think this was a natural occurrence?"

"I don't really care one way or the other, but…you never know. Consider the fact if a coordinator-factor was involved with Junius Seven falling out of orbit. That much I just want to confirm…further more it would be a good opportunity to get some genuine battle data with the Anubis we can use."

Meanwhile at that moment at Junius Seven as soldiers from the Nazca class vessels under Yzak's command had begun deploying Meteor Breakers on the moving remains of Junius Seven trying to get them in place and then activate them before Junius Seven could get any closer to Earth. Unfortunately the members of Patrick Zala faction choose that time to launch their attack on the unsuspecting ZAFT soldiers ambushing them.

Caught completely by surprise and practically without any weapons to defend themselves with…the GuAIZ R mobile suits were being quickly picked off by the attacking GINN High maneuver type II units.

On the bridge of his ship; Yzak watched on screen as several more enemy GINNs appeared to attack the working GuAIZ R mobile suits stopping them from planting any more Meteor Breakers.

"What the hell?"

"Unknown Sir they are not responding to IFF." A crewmember reported.

"Get the GuAIZs rifles out to them…get my unit prepared for deployment; I am going out there to give them some cover." Yzak ordered as he quickly hurried off the bridge wasting no time running to the mobile suit hanger. Meanwhile Dearka was out there fending off the attacking GINN mobile suits since his ZAKU was armed with a Gunner Wizard pack making him among the few currently out there capable of fighting off the attacking GINNs and defending the nearly defenseless GuAIZ R mobile suits.

"What the hell is going on here? These guys are fucking experts."

A short distance away the Minerva and its companion ships were arriving on the scene. On the bridge Meyrin was already becoming quickly aware of the situation happening at Junius Seven as they were receiving a message from the Voltaire.

"Captain we got a report that unknown GINNs are attacking the demolition crews."

"What did you say?" Arthur demanded.

"GINNs?" Talia pointed out as Meyrin clarified the information.

"The attacking party is using GINN high maneuver type mark II units. They are not showing IFF."

"Scramble all mobile suit units…inform Admiral Gato and Mr. Aznable of the situation." Talia ordered as the red-alert alarm was sounded.

It was at that moment Athrun arrived on the bridge with the sound of the alarm now buzzing in his ears.

"What's going on?"

"The demolition crew is under attack by an unknown enemy force."

"I know my request could be denied, but may I be allowed to enter combat inside the Justice." Athrun asked without hesitation.

"That's quite a request, but do you seriously think I'll grant it?"

"I doubt you would, but I just had to ask given the situation." Athrun said quietly as he had actually been hoping the captain would give him permission.

"Do you even have authorization from Representative Athha?"

"It's alright I'll authorize it, a special exception under my authority." Gilbert announced as he had stepped onto the bridge himself just in time to overhear Athrun's request.

"Chairman?"

"We need all the machines we can get out there Captain. Anyone capable of piloting a mobile suit needs to take one and head out there to support the demolition crews. We cannot afford to waste time with these terrorists. The time we have to destroy Junius Seven before it enters the atmosphere is limited."

"Yes sir"

"Athrun please report to the mobile suit deck at once." Gilbert requested as Athrun thanked the man before hurrying off.

At that moment lurking nearby was the Girty Lue as Kurei had just become aware of the commotion happening at Junius Seven. Ian was present as they had become aware of the battle breaking out at the falling remains of the PLANT colony.

"What on Earth is going on here?" Ian inquired as Kurei examined the images he was seeing on the overhead monitor.

"This is just unusual but maybe this whole mess isn't just some random act of god." Kurei commented before ordering. "Have Sting, Auel, and Stellar head out there to gather information on the situation…get my custom Windam ready for launch. I'll head out there myself…get everyone else ready to launch in their own mobile suits just in case the enemy comes at us."

"Yes sir"

Back at the Minerva; the warship's mobile suit launch catapults finished deploying as Rey and Lunamaria were the first machines ready to be launched. Inside the hanger deck Athrun wasted no time donning a flight suit and boarding the Justice Gundam in the first time in two years. As he started activating the Justice Gundam preparing it for battle he noticed Haman was about to head out in her Qubeley obviously intending to aid in the effort of stopping the attacking force of enemy GINNs from hindering demolition efforts.

Meanwhile as the Justice and Qubeley were about to be placed on the launch catapults the ZAKU mobile suits used by Athrun and Heero earlier during the Armory One incident were fully repaired and ready to be launched. Heero was expected to take one out into combat, but before arriving at the hanger a young man slipped pass some of the mechanics and made his way aboard one of the ZAKU units.

After closing the cockpit hatch; Heero arrived and boarded the other ZAKU unit before both machines were moved onto the catapult.

Outside the vessel; the Justice Gundam, the Qubeley and Gato's team lead by their commanding officer were heading straight for Junius Seven with Char in the Testament Gundam following not too far behind. But as they approached they were detected by the Girty Lue-class ship controlled by Azrael lurking nearby.

"Sir we have detected a large number of mobile suits leaving the three vessels that had gathered near Junius Seven in close proximity to those ZAFT ships." A bridge crewman reported.

"Anything special about them" Azrael inquired casually.

"Well we have detected three familiar machines; the Qubeley, the ZGMF-X09A Justice and ZGMF-X12A Testament Gundams."

"I remember those damned machines…if it weren't for them I would still be control of Blue Cosmos." Azrael said as his blood began boiling as he clearly remembered those machines. "Inform my brother he has a new set of orders…there are some mobile suits I want taken out."

Back at Junius Seven; Dearka was finding it increasingly difficult to fend off attacks from the assaulting GINNs, but little did the former Buster Gundam pilot realized it was about to get even more difficult as the pilots of the enemy machines he was fighting were activating a new combat system installed in the cockpits of their mobile suits.

"Engage the new Null System our machines we're given…we'll show these bastards real power." Sato ordered as he and his men engaged a new combat system created from studying the Zero System and modifying it for use in basic mobile suits. Although not quite as effective as the Zero System, but it still gave experienced pilots a boost in response time and combat prowess that was still considerable depending on the pilot, however it was a little bit safer to use than the Zero System that carried less life-threatening risks although there was still the potential danger of temporary insanity and serve mental stress.

But as it was with the Zero System it all depended on the pilot.

It wasn't long before even Dearka noticed what seemed to be a drastic increase in his opponent's combat abilities as they began easily overwhelming the newly armed GuAIZ R mobile suits and even now Dearka was having a difficult time fending off his attackers now.

"What the hell is going on here…their skills have just suddenly improved."

Dearka found himself fighting off two GINNs as one of them made a quick pass cutting the barrel of his wizard pack cannon in two with its sword while the second was going in for the kill with its beam rifle. Without wasting a moment Dearka detached his useless Gunner Wizard pack using the push of the detachment to evade getting shot down.

Suddenly Yzak arrived on the scene as he shot the shooting GINN in the back with his Slash ZAKU Phantom's beam Gatling guns. The beam rounds tore the GINN apart eliminating it as Dearka began to recover as he drew his beam rifle from the back of his machine's waist readying it for the battle ahead.

"Where the hell were you?" Dearka snapped at his commanding officer.

"Well you're welcome for saving your worthless life you ungrateful bastard." Yzak shouted.

"Maybe next time you shouldn't take your sweet time getting out here." Dearka spat back as he hurled a flash grenade at a pair of approaching GINNs trying to blind them as Yzak and Dearka began fighting the incoming GINNs together trying to use group tactics against them. It wasn't long before Sting, Auel and Stellar arrived on the scene as they approached the battlefield that had now engulfed Junius Seven.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Sting commented as Auel added.

"So you're the ones who caused it to move."

The three stolen Gundams began attacking both the GINNs and the GuAIZ R regardless of which side they were on. Not too far behind them was Kurei inside a personalized dark blue and black Windam with a custom rigged backpack carrying four Gunbarrel pods (each one had a beam gun replacing the GAU-758S railgun with two M70AMSAT missile launchers) from a AQM/E-X04 Gunbarrel Striker.

"Leave those Meteor Breakers alone…just worry about the ZAFT mobile suits." Kurei ordered as he joined the battle attacking the nearest group of enemy GINNs that moved to intercept him. Deploying his gunbarrels the Phantom Pain commander swiftly shot them down despite the GINN pilot's best attempts to evade the new arrival's attacks. What had begun as a skirmish had now erupted into an all out war at the remains of Junius Seven.

Sting and Auel took point and attacked a group of GuAIZ R mobile suits after they had finished planting a Meteor Breaker. Sting took out two with a timely deployment of his remote controlled assault pods in conjunction with shots from his beam rifle while Auel blasted the others Sting missed with a brutal barrage of beam weapons.

Stellar began running around the surface of the falling colony remains attacking any GuAIZ R mobile suits she came across by either blasting them with her shoulder mounted beam cannons or ran them through with the beam blades on her Gundam's back with quick passes.

"It's them again" Shinn pointed out as he spotted the three stolen Gundams along with Kurei's new machine.

"You guys worry about backing up the demolition team…I'll take care of them." Athrun ordered as he changed direction and began heading for the three stolen Gundams and their commanding officer to engage them.

"He's not in charge" Shinn snapped.

"Do as he says…I order it." Gilbert replied as his voice was heard over the intercom. "It's more important that we cover and protect the demolition teams and ensure that those Meteor Breakers are successfully deployed."

"Yes sir" Shinn grumbled as he, Luna and Rey went straight after the GINNs attacking the GuAIZ R mobile suits. Char and the few mobile suits following him from his ship were moving in to provide support for the demolition crews while Gato and his men were doing the same. Aiding the demolition crews and getting as many Meteor Breakers installed and activated as soon as possible was top priority.

Time was their greatest enemy here.

Athrun tracked down the stolen Gundams and once he was in range he open fire on them with his beam rifle trying to take out the Abyss Gundam as the blue machine was harassing a pair of GuAIZ R mobile suits trying to activate a Meteor Breaker. Closing in to finish the Abyss Gundam as quickly as he could since Athrun knew a prolonged battle wasn't in the best interests of the Earth right now readied to whip out his beam saber and decapitate the stolen Gundam with some quick slashes.

Auel backed away as he used the anti-beam coated shoulders of his machine to protect himself from Athrun's beam shots as he came close to blasting his head off. The Abyss Gundam counterattacked by firing a barrage of energy weapon fire at the approaching Justice Gundam, but Athrun evaded most of the shots while he blocked the others with his shield.

The Justice Gundam closed the distance between them quickly as Athrun released his machine's hold on its shield to whip out its beam saber to strike Auel hoping to finish the stolen Gundam off quickly, but a number of beam shots from the Gundam's left forced him to switch to the defensive and bat away the incoming beams.

Sting arrived on the scene coming to give his comrade some back up against the Justice. Athrun responded by throwing one of his machine's beam boomerangs at the incoming Chaos Gundam forcing its pilot to defend itself while at the same time Athrun recovered his shield and backed off putting some space between him and the enemy machines before firing on Sting as he was distracted after shielding him from Athrun's boomerang leaving a deep cut along his Gundam's shield.

Athrun began powering up the buster shot feature on his beam rifle as he decided just to eliminate both of them with one super-charged buster shot, but the arrival of another machine saved Auel and Sting as someone shot the rifle in the Justice Gundam's hand destroying it.

The Justice turned and saw the custom Windom piloted by Kurei approaching him.

"Sting…Auel you guys fall back and give Stellar a hand I'll take this guy." Kurei ordered.

"Oh come on we can take him."

"Shut up Auel it's an order."

Auel muttered some curses as the two stolen machines took off to find their teammate to provide some assistance.

_I never thought I run into you again this soon Athrun _

Kurei readied himself for battle as Athrun made the first move after drawing a beam saber to replace the weapon he lost as the Justice began firing on the Windom using the mounted weapons on his subflyer to inflict some ranged damage on the machine, but the pilot of the mobile suit was fast as he effortlessly dodged and evaded Athrun's attacks.

The Windam countered attacked by deploying its wired controlled Gunbarrel pods to fight the Justice Gundam.

Elsewhere in the nearby vicinity Lunamaria was engaged in combat with Stellar in the Gaia Gundam after coming to the aid of a pair of unarmed GuAIZ R mobile suits trying to escape the scene. The fight was fierce between the two combatants, but the battle became even tenser with the approach of Sting and Auel after the trio was ordered to give Stellar a hand.

The three Gundams began attacking Lunamaria together trying to use their numbers and combined firepower to overwhelm her, but the attempt failed as Heero followed by another ZAKU arrived on the scene to give Luna some back up.

"Lunamaria you move around and attack from the rear I'll charge them to get their attention." Heero advised as Lunamaria replied and began breaking away from her fight with the three Gundams while Heero charged them with firing his beam rifle at the three of them trying to get their attention.

However the second ZAKU in their company began rushing the three machines firing his beam rifle, but when he got close he discarded the weapon and quickly whipped out its beam axe taking the Abyss Gundam's right arm off with one swing while Sting nearly had his machine's head shot off by Heero's shots. Stellar moved in to counterattack and get the ZAKU that attacked Auel, but the green machine reacted quickly by delivering a roundhouse kick to the Gaia Gundam's head sending it reeling backwards before using a free hand to throw a grenade at it.

The Phase Shift Armor protected the Gaia Gundam's pilot from the grenade's denotation, but it was enough to leave Stellar stunned for a few moments.

"Who on Earth is piloting that ZAKU?" Lunamaria asked herself as she jumped Sting from behind shooting the Chaos Gundam's head off before moving in for a finishing blow with its beam axe. Fortunately for Sting he managed to avoid a death-dealing blow, but the Chaos Gundam lost its left arm along with a deep gash on the chest of the stolen machine.

Heero attacked a stunned Stellar taking off one of the Gaia Gundam's legs with a passing sweep of its beam axe.

Meanwhile Athrun and Kurei continued their battle as the two machines were battling it out as Athrun was kept on the defensive thanks to the remote weapons of Kurei's custom Windam. As the two fought matching each other blow for blow…unable to deal any decisive strike upon the other. Athrun managed to close the distance between them quickly as he drew both beam sabers after tossing his shield aside to take the battle straight into melee with Kurei responding by readying his shield and drawing a beam saber.

In a flash of clashing beam saber the two fought fiercely as Athrun was left surprised by the sheer skill his foe was demonstration…so much so that it seemed familiar to him somehow, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Not a single one of Athrun's beam saber swings got through with Kurei's impressive display of defending himself from Athrun's attacks.

_Who the hell is this guy…his fighting style is familiar_

Athrun thought about the fighting techniques of his foe he remembered the time he and Kira thought to the death near Orb…as he fought about it his foe's fighting style was similar to Kira's brutal fighting style he had been using in battle flowing his arrival on Earth.

_No way, it can't be him_

The Justice Gundam pulled away as the Windam's gunbarrels tried to shoot him down, but good dodge timing on Athrun's part saved his machine from suffering any damage. However the stalemate between the two remained with neither one of them unable to land a blow on the other.

Meanwhile aboard the Minerva the Supreme Chairman and Captain Gladys were surprised by how much the entire area had turned into an all out warzone with three different parties fighting each other to the bitter end.

"This is insane" Talia commented.

"I agree"

At that moment Cagalli arrived on the bridge searching for Athrun.

"Ah Princess its fortunate that you are here to join us...I trust your injuries are healing up well?"

Cagalli was now aware of what was happening when she saw the overhead monitor showing images of the battle that had broken out at Junius Seven.

"Never mind my injuries…what's going on?" Cagalli said with signs of concern on her face.

"It seems there was a group of enemy machines waiting to ambush the demolition teams, further more the ones who stole our machines from Armory One have arrived and provided a slight complication, but we have some of the finest pilots on our side for this situation. We're gaining ground now and we should have this situation under control very soon." Gilbert said with confidence, but little did he realize…the Supreme Chairman had just jinxed himself.

"Captain we have incoming…another unit is approaching Junius Seven." Meyrin announced.

"WHAT…is it one of ours?" Cagalli asked.

"No…in fact it's an unknown unit. We have no match of it in the library at all."

Closing in on Junius Seven the dreaded Anubis Gundam was approaching the colony remains as its pilot had a wide grin on his face.

"Don't worry brother I'll take out the Justice and I'll put that Haman Karn out of her misery too."

A/N: thanks guys again for the great reviews…helps keep me going.


	10. Chapter 10 The Broken World

A/N: ok sorry about the late update again, but I had a serious problem with trying to complete this chapter. I had the ideas, but for some reason I wasn't able to type it out until now.

* * *

Chapter 10

The Broken World

The Anubis Gundam rapidly approached the falling remains of Junius Seven as it continued on its deadly course while the pilot of the dreadnought mobile suit was searching for its targets…his instructions take out Athrun Zala and Haman Karn on behalf of Azrael. Derek didn't find Haman, but he did pick up Athrun on his screen and began moving to close in on the Justice Gundam.

As Athrun and Kurei continued fighting one another trapped in a deadlock in terms of fighting skill…the two machines picked up the approaching Anubis.

"What the hell is that thing?" Kurei asked himself, as he had no record of such a machine existing.

"Another Gundam, but where did it come from?"

Athrun didn't have much time to think on the thought as the Anubis began firing its beam rifles at the Justice Gundam as it moved to quickly close the distance between the two machines while it seemingly ignored the mobile suit piloted by Kurei. The customized mobile suit hung back as its pilot watched the Justice enter mortal combat against the new Gundam.

_I'll let you handle this one Athrun…at least this way I don't have to kill you. _

With that the Windam turned and fled the immediate area trying to avoid getting involved in the battle between the two Gundams. Athrun raised his shield and blocked the first few shots before whipping out his own beam saber to counter a beam saber swipe from the Anubis as it put away one of its rifles to draw its own beam saber while putting away the other one on the holster on its hips.

Instead of drawing a second beam saber to attack Derek instead decided to show off one of the Anubis Gundam's new weapons as it activated its beam shield, but the shape of the shield changed assuming that of a four-point star before the emitter began spinning soon turning the beam shield into a spinning beam saw.

Realizing the danger Athrun pulled back, but was forced to sacrifice his shield to avoid any serious damage as the Anubis sliced the item completely in half through the sides. The Anubis was already charging up its stomach mounted multi-phase beam cannon for a second attack.

The Justice rolled to the side to evade the shot as it came dangerously close to hitting him as the beam barely grazed the machine's left shoulder.

"This machine…now this is what I call kick-ass combat performance! You really have to give the Orb Union credit for building such a fine machine."

The Anubis pressed its attack onward forcing Athrun on the defensive as the black machine held its two whips in its hands before lashing them out at Athrun who kept evading every attack, but was barely able to keep up. It wasn't Athrun that was the problem it was the Justice the machine wasn't fast enough to keep up with a newly and more technologically superior model like the Anubis designed for one purpose…to take out Gundams equipped with the Zero System.

"Damn it…the Justice is responding too slowly."

However things for Athrun did improve somewhat when Haman started to intervene as she deployed her funnels to attack the black Gundam forcing the Anubis to go on the defensive, but that was when the Anubis deployed its own beam funnels as the whips held by the machine suddenly scattered become a large number of beam mini-DRAGOON controlled beam guns.

Haman dodged the first onslaught of beam shots as it rolled to one side to avoid getting hit while the deadly vixen from Neo Zeon tried to shoot them down as both she and Athrun teamed up to challenge the Anubis Gundam.

Elsewhere on the battlefield the Abyss Gundams under Kurei's command was engaged in heated combat against Lunamaria, Heero and the pilot of a third ZAKU mobile suit aiding them. The Chaos and Gaia Gundam were distracted for a few moments to the intervention of GuAIZ R mobile suits giving the three ZAKUs time to focus on the Abyss Gundam.

Auel tried to take down Lunamaria, but the woman dodged Auel shot while Heero was moving behind the stolen machine and was about to attack. Although the Abyss Gundam did notice the attack about to happen, but he had to turn to deal with Lunamaria who tried to cleave the blue Gundam in two with her beam glaive giving Heero a chance to join in on the attack.

Despite Auel trying to evade Lunamaria she successfully took legs of the Abyss Gundam off with Heero following up at the same time taking the blue Gundam's head off with his machine's beam tomahawk.

"Auel!" Sting shouted seeing his comrade in danger of being killed.

The Chaos Gundam charged into the situation with its mobile weapon pods raining a hail of beam fire on the two machines as it tried to cover his comrade.

"Auel get the hell of there!"

"Damn it, who the hell are these guys?" The Extended pilot complained as it wasted no time fleeing the battlefield while Sting covered his escape, but the situation wasn't any better for the Chaos Gundam since its foes it had been engaged in battle in arrived on the scene and began joining Heero and Lunamaria on the attack against the green machine.

Stella tried to join in on the attack, but the third ZAKU in their group attacked the black Gundam by throwing a flash-bang grenade into its face blinding the female pilot long enough for the ZAKU to shoot its right arm off, but Stellar blocked with its shield to prevent a second shot from piercing her cockpit.

"Stellar…Sting we're done here, we're retreating!" Kurei shouted over an open comm. as he flew through the group of attacking mobile suits while showering them with beam gun fire trying to break the fight up allowing the two Extended pilots' time to escape the battle.

The mobile armor and the two Gundam fled the scene having gathered all the data they needed, but the battle was proceeding differently for Haman and Athrun as they were completely trapped in a dead lock unable to win against the Anubis Gundam while likewise the Anubis couldn't beat them due to the skills of his opponents.

"Damn it…if I had more time with this machine I could cream these guys, but I can't use the Zero System against them." The Anubis's pilot cursed.

Suddenly as if the situation couldn't get any worse for it a chain triple blast from a trio of Positron Blaster Cannons tore through space and claimed several remaining enemy GINN mobile suits while damaging the falling colony remains in the process. Instantly recognizing the cannons she knew who had just arrived.

"Fashionably late aren't we?"

The battleship the Napoleon had arrived on the scene while a squadron of mobile suits being lead by the Kaiser Epyon emerged from the ship heading straight for the battle. Among the squads of mobile suits he was leading into the battle was Elpeo Puru in her newly built AMX-004-2 Qubeley Mark II.

"Puru you help the ZAFT machines mop up what's left of the enemy…the rest of you help where its needed, our priority is the destruction of Junius Seven before its enters the atmosphere so get those Meteor Breakers installed and activated."

"Yes sir!" The Zeon pilots shouted together as they broke formation to carry out their task as did Puru. The black Qubeley moved in unleashing its funnels on a trio of enemy GINN unleashing a deadly net of beam fire ensnaring the machines before they were brutally shot to pieces by the beams when they attempted to escape their line of fire.

The Kaiser Epyon made its way across the battlefield heading straight for the Anubis Gundam as its pilot already realized it wasn't going to survive a head on confrontation with three ace pilots since he was barely holding onto a stalemate with two as it was now. The Anubis Gundam unleashed its beam bits to cover its tracks as it made a hasty retreat from the battlefield.

"I'll concede to you guys this defeat for now, but I'll get you guys next time!" Derek Azrael snapped as he hurried away. Haman and Athrun tried to pursue, but the black Gundam was too fast for them to follow thanks to its improved and experimental thrusters and its dual wings of light.

"Damn coward!" Haman sneered furious that her foe had run away.

"Forget him we got more important matters to deal with!" Athrun said as he turned around and hurried to help finish off the last remnants of the Patrick Zala faction while Haman joined him venting her frustration on the unfortunate enemy soldiers to cross her path.

Nicholas had also changed course and began aiding some of the demolition workers in activating whatever Meteor Breakers he found in one piece while other soldiers helped set up and activate whatever remaining breakers they found. On the bridge of the Minerva; Amuro was watching the battle from the lounge as he and Blex recognized the Epyon.

"Is that it?" Amuro inquired when he noticed Blex's reaction to the mobile suit.

"Yes that's the same machine that wiped out the fleet after Operation Stardust was carried out by the Delaz Faction."

Amuro couldn't to observe Epyon quietly studying its movements and the performance of the red Gundam he was watching. He had seen very few machines with such highly exceptional performance, but the Epyon was truly without doubt a mark above the rest. It was understandable why Char had second thoughts about besting it giving both the machines capabilities he was witnessing and the reputation and skills of its pilot. Amuro didn't hold any doubts about his abilities, but if he possessed a Gundam on par with Epyon in terms of capabilities then it would be possible, but in a regular mobile suit…even with his skills he would get creamed.

Chris and Jerid also observed the red machine as Kaiser Epyon charged into a group of four GINN high maneuver types mark II where it drew one of its beam swords a second before effortlessly cleaving one of them in half through the waist while moving behind a second GINN cutting it in half through the head down through its torso. The third GINN tried to attack, but Nicholas saw the attack coming wiping out his second beam sword and quickly decapitating the enemy machine before finally taking the head off of the last GINN with one of its leg-mounted beam blades on his right leg followed up by a thrusting stab to the stomach of the machine killing the pilot.

After successfully dispatching of the enemy GINNs the Meteor Breakers were inserted into the falling colony remains successfully causing a chain of explosions that tore Junius Seven asunder causing it to split into two. One half was safely drifting away from the planet removing half of the threat, but unfortunately the other half was descending towards Earth.

"Damn it we still need to break it up into smaller pieces." Athrun shouted as he headed down towards Junius Seven, but suddenly their problems were made even worse as retreat signals were sent from the Minerva, Voltaire and the Napoleon alerting the mobile suits out there that they had reached the altitude limit.

On the bridge Captain Gladys knew just as everyone else did that Junius Seven would need to be broken up into smaller pieces otherwise the damage to Earth would be serve, so a plan came into mind…but it was extremely dangerous, but given the situation what other opinions did she have.

"Chairman I must ask that you and Representative Athha transfer to the Voltaire immediately!"

"What?" Cagalli asked while she and Gilbert were taking by surprise by the sudden request by the ship's captain.

"I intend to take the Minerva into the atmosphere and fire the ship's main cannon to destroy as much of Junius Seven as it can to do whatever we can to minimize the damage."

"But surely you understand how risky that is Talia?"

"I do, but if we don't do anything more to destroy Junius Seven before it hits Earth then those terrorists will get what they want. We have to make a decision as to which lives we can afford to lose. Who we can save...and who we cannot. I know we can do it and if don't do it…it will only leave me with a guilty conscious."

"I understand Talia you have my permission to proceed, are you coming Representative?"

"No thank you Chairman Durandal, but if the Minerva is willing to go the limit then I'll stay aboard to see its efforts through till the end. Besides Athrun and Heero haven't come back yet."

"Very will princess I'll respect your wishes." With those words Gilbert left the ship aboard a shuttle heading to the Voltaire while word of the Minerva's intentions was spreading to the mobile suits still outside as some were already retreating to their ships, but Athrun was refusing to return as he was trying to work on one more Meteor Breaker he had found by himself.

However he was found by Shinn who had noticed the lone Gundam working out there.

"Hey didn't you hear all mobile suits have to retreat?"

"I am well aware of that, but even if the Minerva makes an exterior attack on the surface of Junius Seven there is a good chance it will not work, but maybe if I can get this to work then just maybe it will have a better chance at succeeding."

Seeing that nothing was going to convince Athrun to leave the Impulse Gundam moved in to begin assisting the Justice with placing the Meteor Breaker into position, but while they finished with the proper placement of the device the ZAFT pilot popped the question to the pilot of the Justice.

"Why is someone like you on Orb's side?"

Suddenly a trio of GINN High Maneuver Types Mark II emerged from one of the deep fissures created when the remains of the PLANT was spilt into half to engage the two Gundams intent on stopping them no matter what.

"No we won't let you do anymore!" One of the pilots screamed as the second pilot charged the Impulse Gundam with Shinn taking aim with his beam rifle.

"You're nothing but pests. It's gone too far! No one can stop the inevitable now!" Sato cried out.

"My daughter's tombstone is here it must fall so the world can change."

Shinn shot down the GINN quickly, but his last words left him asking himself.

"Daughter?"

"Who are they?" Athrun asked as he blocked a sword attack from Sato when he started to engage the Justice in melee combat.

"Have you forgotten the innocent lives thrown away here? You're living in a damn dream world laughing with the butchers who caused this, you bastards! The cowardly successors of Clyne have deceived us; they have corrupted and weakened ZAFT. Can't you see that? Patrick Zala knew it all along; the only true path for Coordinators was the one that he had chosen for us!" Sato shouted as his partner after losing both arms to Shinn's handling with the Impulse's beam rifle wrapped the legs of his GINN around the white machine before self-destructing it. The Impulse was unharmed for the most part, but the explosion sent the Gundam reeling from blast while some of the GINN's remains battered the Meteor Breaker damaging it causing it to activate.

Much to their horror the device failed to detonate, but they were out of time as the remains of Junius Seven were already entering the atmosphere. Aware there was nothing more they could do the Justice and Impulse made haste to leave the falling colony trying to escape Earth's gravitational pull.

"They'll suffer this time! The Naturals will feel our wrath!" Sato shouted as he grabbed hold of the Justice's legs trying to take Athrun down with him. "And the traitor child will die with us."

"Don't count on it!" Athrun shouted as he drew a beam saber and hacked off the arms of the GINN before kicking it in the head which was more than enough to send the GINN falling to the surface of the colony where it exploded on impact, but it also triggered the Meteor Breaker to explode causing a section of the colony to spilt from it.

However despite their efforts Shinn and Athrun couldn't escape Earth's gravitational pull, but that was when Athrun had another idea.

"Shinn get clear!" Athrun shouted as he drew his mobile suit's rifle and switched to its Buster Mode preparing a charged shot.

The Justice Gundam began firing its Buster Rifle at the falling remains using full charged shots to try breaking up whatever pieces they could, but they were soon joined by another Gundam firing another Buster Rifle at the falling colony. In the distance the duo saw the Kaiser Epyon firing away at the falling PLANT colony trying to stop it, but a third Gundam joined them the Testament Gundam…using a Buster Rifle his machine had as a newly added addition to his machine's armaments.

Its Buster Rifle wasn't as powerful as the Justice and the Kaiser Epyon, but every little bit helps as parts of the colony the three Gundams were firing at were breaking up.

In the far distance the Minerva was in position to fire its cannon as its Tannhauser was armed and ready to fire.

"Captain if we don't fire now then we won't have any time to do any damage to it?" Arthur warned.

"Any word from the Justice and Impulse?" Talia asked with Meyrin providing an answer. "No, but…wait…I have something we have high energy readings coming from the area in front of Junius Seven. Its two…no three mobile suits detected."

An image on the main viewer showing the three Gundams with the Impulse behind them firing their Buster Rifles at the falling colony breaking up large sections of the colony with each shot, but given the giant size and its thickness they lacked enough time to completely destroy it…not without some help at least.

"Fire Tannhauser!" Captain Talia ordered.

"What?" Arthur asked.

"They aren't on the colony remains and they are trying to destroy Junius Seven as much as we are so we have to join in."

"But they could get caught in the blast."

"I have faith in those men out there and their machines will protect them so open fire!"

"Yes madam!" Arthur said as they began firing the ship's Positron Blaster Cannon at the falling colony remains.

The colony continued its descent into the atmosphere as the Minerva and the three Gundams armed with Buster Rifles continued until after two more combined barrages the shots did their job and the remaining giant fragments were shattered, but still some smaller fragments remained and the explosive destruction of the last giant fragment scattered them across the world.

* * *

On Earth people had already been fleeing to evacuate areas were fragments were likely to hit or where their impacts were likely to either cause major flooding or serious damage to the area, but so far areas closer to the equator were more than likely to receive major damage from the falling fragments.

On an island somewhere in the pacific, specifically on the Marshall Islands, the children looked after by Reverend Malchio along with the blind Reverend himself had all gathered in a underground shelter where they along with Lacus Clyne and her self-appointed bodyguard Canard Pars were also present hoping they could weather out the disaster taking place above them as around the world fragments landed including heavy damage to Athens, Philadelphia, Quebec City, part of the Great Wall of China, Shanghai, Rome, Prague as well as numerous areas close to the equator where flooding and the explosive impact of the fragments claimed thousands of lives.

From the Girty Lue, Kurei watched footage from one of the hull camera of the fragments impacting different areas of the Earth. On the outside he remained distant and cold, but inside Kira Yamato was in tears over the incident. Aboard the Voltaire inside a cabin prepared for him Gilbert sat in a darkened room with a thin smile on his face.

An hour later once the ship completed reentry the Minerva had successfully made its way through earth's atmosphere and was currently flying about approximately more than six thousand feet in the air. On the bridge the view screen cleared up enabling everyone to see the sky at last as Arthur had a few minor things to report.

"Captain, atmospheric maneuvering is now possible."

"Unfold the wings. Helm, don't rush it."

"Unfolding wings; switching to atmospheric thrust." Malik answered as the ship unfolded its wings while the Captain turned her attention to Meyrin.

"What is the status on communications and sensors?"

"Negative, Due to the effects of the fallen fragments, the radio spectrum is..." Unfortunately before the girl could finish she was cut off by the Captain.

"Use laser, heat sensors, or whatever possible. Locate Epyon, Impulse, Justice and Testament!"

"Do you believe they've descended safely as well?"

"Their machines are capable of surviving Atmospheric reentry, so they can't be far."

As Talia had expected; The Impulse Gundam was continuing its descent as it searched for the Minerva with the Justice Gundam in its company, but they were soon joined by another pair of Gundams the Testament and the Kaiser Epyon.

"Blast it where is the Minerva?" Shinn asked as he searched for the ship.

"We can't be too far from it!" Athrun said as he tried to help Shinn with the search for ship while casting a glare at the Kaiser Epyon knowing full well who was inside, but speak of the devil his voice was heard on an open channel.

"Come in, Pilot of Impulse do have any idea where the Minerva is?"

"Uh no sir I have no idea where the Minerva is."

"I see…perhaps if we are lucky they will find us before your machine runs out of power, because I don't see any islands from up here." Nicholas warned as back on the Minerva Burt detected something from his station.

"Sensors detecting a response, located at seven o'clock. Distance: 400! I think it's the Impulse? No."

"Can you project it on the screen?" Talia asked Meyrin.

"Yes. Please wait a minute." The young girl brought up an image of the Impulse, Justice, Testament and the Kaiser Epyon. Arthur was the first to exclaim his surprise.

"They all made it."

"Arthur, use a flare to signal them." Talia commanded as Arthur replied.

"Ma'am!"

"Malik, bring the ship closer to them. We have to intercept them soon. Otherwise, they will eventually crash into the sea." Talia ordered as a flare was fired. The four machines saw it and made their way to the ship which didn't take them too long to find once they knew where it was. The hangers opened up as the four mobile suits flew into them. Once inside Meyrin turned to the captain with confirmation that the four Gundams were on board.

"All four of them have landed on the ship." Meyrin announced as Cagalli hurried off to see Athrun in the hanger.

"Alright begin landing procedures we will set down in the ocean then work crews are to conduct an examination of the ship and take care of any needed repairs."

"Yes Captain!" Arthur replied while in the hanger the four Gundams were secured to holders as their pilots were disembarking from their machines. Heero was waiting outside while a young Kamille Bidan was handcuffed to him. The reason for it was because the child had been the one inside the ZAKU who had helped Heero and Luna out. As much as his help was appreciated his actions in taking a mobile suit out wasn't something looked down upon well especially by the ZAFT soldiers aboard the ship.

Athrun approached Heero as Cagalli hurried her way pass the crowd bumping into Luna while calling out his name.

"Damn it Athrun why didn't you tell me you were going out."

"I didn't want to sit back and do nothing!"

"Why restrain him Representative we know he is a capable pilot even if his views are slightly flawed."

"YOU!" Cagalli said shooting Nicholas Peacecraft a venomous glare.

"It's nice to see you too Chief Representative Athha!"

"Supreme Commander Nicholas Peacecraft of Neo-Zeon welcome aboard the Minerva on behalf of Chairman Durandal." Rey said offering a salute.

"I am glad to see Chairman Durandal received my message was the captain informed?"

"She was sir by a text-only message as you had requested."

"Excellent."

"Please follow me! Lady Haman is also waiting" Rey offered, but before Nicolas could leave Athrun stopped him.

"Nicholas, were you behind that drop?"

"No I wasn't, but I could ask you the same question since those men were followers of Patrick Zala were they not?"

That stopped Athrun cold in his tracks as the young man asked.

"How did you-"

"Know? It was an open channel I overheard it."

"It's true I heard it as well." Char added not really defending the Peacecraft, but merely proving what he said was true so false allegations wouldn't be cast upon him.

"Now if you excuse me I would like to rest somewhere before I have to make my long trip to the Giga-Float to secure passage back into space." As Peacecraft began to leave the hanger he was being watched by Blex and Amuro from one of the higher platforms on the side of the hanger.

"So he's Nicholas Peacecraft."

"He looks so young." Blex commented while Amuro quietly observed him before leaving to intercept the Peacecraft in the hall to confront him. As Rey led Nicholas Peacecraft into the hallway of the ship heading for a room where the Zeon commander could rest he was soon intercepted by Amuro.

"You are Nicholas Peacecraft aren't you?"

"Who are you?" Nicholas inquired calmly.

"I am Amuro Ray."

"Amuro Ray the legendary pilot of the One Year War from the Earth Federation? How did you get here? This is an unexpected surprise and honor? How can I help you?"

"I want some answers from you, why are you with Zeon?"

"May I suggest we take this to a lounge or somewhere more appropriate to carry out this discussion?"

Amuro agreed with a nod as Rey lead them to the officer's lounge. Once inside the two sat down opposite of one another in front of a table, once the two were ready Nicholas began by answering Amuro's earlier question.

"To answer your earlier question I am with Zeon because we are working together to help stabilize peace in this place of the universe. In fact were it not for their assistance and that of other parties we may not have achieved peace as well as we did in the last Bloody Valentine War."

"But you must be aware of what kind of people the leaders of Zeon are?"

"I am well aware of their actions from the previous war, but as far as I am concerned a number of countries in my world have done similar if not potentially equally horrible acts. Take for example the Earth Alliance they ran a project that abducted innocent children from outside the Atlantic Federation and begin using them as lab rats remaking them into killing machines using drugs and other methods while those who didn't make the cut were brutally killed. ZAFT isn't much better either as they built weapons that would have wiped out all life on the planet if misused. I have no doubt the Earth Federation you hail from aren't exactly much better are they?"

He had Amuro there, but he didn't show weakness as he added.

"Then what are you doing now?"

"Trying to improve life for those on Axis…I went through a lot of trouble to help get it recognized as a nation in space and our technology and weapons as well as growing population puts us on equal footing with Orb. Now I'll ask a question what you plan on doing."

"I'll find a way back?"

"I see, but why not stay here on this world Amuro Ray, someone of your talent will be very useful and you have a chance for a fresh start here. According to files at Axis after the war you were placed under house arrest by the very Federation you fought for and helped win in the war because of their fear for Newtype."

"Are you trying to recruit me for Zeon?"

"Well unless you want to join, but that is your choice, however I am simply suggesting you should consider staying here. But even so I think we both know you won't join Zeon am I right?"

"You are right on that account."

* * *

Meanwhile in another corner of the ship Athrun and Cagalli were talking to one another while making their way back to their quarters. They didn't like the fact Nicholas was aboard the Minerva, but it was clear he had secretly arranged for a temporary stay aboard the ship until he was ready and able to fly to the Giga-Float and acquire passage back into space to rejoin Zeon forces.

"Damn it I can't believe that guy!" Cagalli said bitterly.

"I am sorry Cagalli, but it can't be helped I don't like him either, however he is a major force of influence within Zeon as well as possessing power political ties to both Eurasia and the PLANTs. He is someone you can't pick a fight with."

"I know, but damn it…that guy…Kira is dead because of him."

Athrun lowered his head in sadness as he added.

"I know, but-"

The young pilot was at a loss for words as he didn't know what to say while at the same time Heero and Luna had overseen Kamille being thrown into the brig. True it was a bit much for someone as young as him, but an example had to be made after pulling such a stunt like that.

"Why are you two locking me up, I helped you guys out!"

"You did, but it's against regulations for a civilian child to hijack a mobile suit and launch into a battle like that even if you had military training or not." Lunamaria noted firmly.

"You have natural talents for a mobile suit pilot, but it was still wrong of you to go out there like that. Did you have some kind of death wish?" Heero demanded.

"No, but I just wanted to go out." Kamille said dodging the question.

"I'll come back later and ask that question when you had time to think about what you did." Heero said as he and Lunamaria left to leave the young boy alone.

As the clouds of dust left over from the destruction that had rained down from the skies and the seas receded back into the ocean taking some portions of the city and many of the people the waters had claimed as well. With the settling of the dust the cries for revenge, hate and cries of sorrow began to echo fourth from the world as some knew this was all going to lead the people of Earth into one direction…war.

* * *

A/N: hopefully the next chapter won't take as long as long as I don't suffer the same problem I had with this one.


	11. Chapter 11 Crumbling Peace

A/N: Allelujah praise the lord I finally got another chapter out and its thanks to Pacifism is for the Birds who without which this chapter wouldn't have been made so a big round of applause for him. I made a minor change in the previous chapter for something that happens in this chapter, but please enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 11

Crumbling Peace

The Minerva was currently resting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean while its work and engineering crews were going through the ship examining and making any needed repairs the battleship required before they would attempt to head to Orb to deliver Cagalli and her entourage, but with the recent happenings communications were currently impossible with the fall of Junius Seven so the people aboard had no choice except wait.

At that same moment on the Marshall Islands Lacus accompanied by Kira's mother Caridad Yamato and Canard Pars as well as Reverend Malchio who were watching as the orphaned children in their care were surveying the damage to their home they had lost due to tidal waves from the fall of a Junius Seven fragment. Lacus could only watch sadly as the children were heartbroken over the lost of their possession, but the songstress was more thankful than none of them had been harmed.

Their possessions could be replaced, but not the children.

Looking up at the sky silently a feeling a dread washed over her mind as she knew what the outcome following the aftermath of this terrible disaster would be like. The anger and hate that would spread like wildfire throughout the world after the sorrow has consumed those who lived as they mourn those who have died.

* * *

"A congratulations are in order, Lord Djibril, for the diligent work with media manipulation."

Djibril leaned back, stroking his black cat as the praise was heaped upon him. It was a piece of cake to use both the images and the communications from the battle of Junius Seven to paint an extremely bad light upon PLANT. Already, news services around the world were using them to great effect, as was evidenced by the massed assemblies in numerous major cities that were left unharmed.

"Indeed, already leaders around the world are seeking consultation with us."

"Excellent," Djibril interjected, "It will be only a matter of time before we can get the world to unite again under our common flag."

"However," one of the men interjected, "there is an issue in which we want to discuss with you."

"Go on," Djibril said, suddenly sensing an issue with the direction this conversation was going.

"We are displeased with the lack of any military victory by your assets. We have provided your endeavors with numerous advanced units and funding and even with the added ZAFT units, you have yet to have any success. If you do not get any success soon, we have other means of getting success."

Djibril grit his teeth as he got up in his chair, the cat jumping down and scurrying away.

"I've handed us a casus belli against those patchwork monsters and you sit here giving me this talk about needing a military victory from ME?"

"It is nothing against your Djibril, however, there has been another who has scored some military victories as of late."

"And he has done it for less cost."

"Who are you referring to," Djibril said, keeping his voice as level as possible.

"It is none of your concern, your concern is to bring military success, we suggest you do it promptly."

The conference then ended as Djibril's fist clenched, then relaxed, before clenching again.

"CONFERENCE KUREI," he screamed

* * *

Meanwhile, the Anubis had returned back to its new home, buried deep within the icy bowels of Antarctica. Derek Azrael could only sit back and wait as the elevator lowered him deeper into its depths as it went by level after level of research, development, and production facilities that made up the facility.

It then came to a stop as it reached the deepest level of the facility that he could finally ease himself as the conveyer went into action guiding the Anubis to the cradle that awaited it, and the familiar blond headed figure of his brother.

He could only smirk as he opened the cockpit door and awaited as the Anubis finally came to a stop.

The two years had not exactly been the kindest to Murata Azrael, from a playboy who had everything to nothing had opened his eyes to how fleeting power truly was, but it also had hardened and made him a whole lot more dangerous.

He smiled as Derek exited the cockpit and clasped his arm.

"I take it the Anubis performed well?"

"Exceptionally well," Derek responded smiling, "It's a dream."

"Good."

Derek tilted his head slightly.

"This isn't like you. What are you not telling me?"

Azrael would only smile, "I found it."

"Found what?"

"You'll see," Murata stated, turning around and leading his brother.

"No, seriously Murata, what are you talking about? What is it?"

Murata said nothing as he led Derek to a door, before opening it up and leading them into a large well-lit cavern. They both then walked up to the large glass viewport that made up the wall and showed the interior of cavern.

"So what is this thing?"

"Just watch."

It was then that a loud klaxon started, and suddenly multiple doors in the extremely large cavern opened, and multiple mobile suits shot into the cavern taking flight.

Derek immediately noted that they were all Windam models, newest units just being rolled out by LOGOS to replace the 105 Daggers that made up the majority of the EA military. But what was different though were the antennas mounted on the head and shoulders.

They quickly set down in a large circle, weapons at their side, before another klaxon went off, and the Windams leapt up in the air, before firing off their weapons at one another, paintballs flying everywhere as the Windams began fighting against one another in almost a well choreographed battle, if it wasn't obvious that it was just a general furball as it seemed every single mobile suit was engaging one another.

"You remember how I've spent the last year going through the military looking for specific candidates," Murata asked of his brother.

"Yah, I remember that. What about it, you never told me why you were doing it."

"One of our moles provided a data dump on the majority of Axis's information databases. In there I found some rather interesting information on something called Newtypes. According to their information it was theorized human evolution from exposure to space would unlock portions of the brain previous locked during consciousness."

"And so?"

"What if these Newtypes also existed here? Over from where they came from, Newtypes were powerful pilots in their own right with heightened spatial awareness. If we could get our hands on them and militarize them, we could have an advantage on any of our enemies."

"And you're saying that you found one?"

"Yes," Azrael said excitedly, "All of those Windams in there, they are controlled by ONE PERSON."

Derek felt his jaw drop slightly, as he looked back out at the battle that was raging inside.

"How….how many mobile suits are out there?"

"At the moment twenty-three, but we've had her running as many as forty-one Windams at one time."

"….Wait….She?"

Murata could only smile like a cat who had swallowed a canary.

It was a short time later that Murata led Derek into another chamber, but this one was filled by scientists and various consoles as they went about their work, but the centerpiece of the room, where the scientists were obviously consciously avoiding was a large pod surrounded by a chaotic latticework of conduits and wires that connected to it like something out of Frankenstein.

"So this woman you're talking about? Who is she?"

"I'll let you introduce herself to you," Murata replied.

The pod then hissed as the contents inside were exposed to the atmosphere outside of it, and the hatch lifted open.

A scientist came running past Murata and Dennis with towel and stood at the side of pod as a figure stepped out of it and took the proffered towel before wiping her face and hair off.

It was then that Derek finally got a good look at who "she" was. Brown hair that just barely touched her shoulders, a subtly-sharp face that framed a pair of nearly iridescent green eyes. Completing the look though, was the distinctly unusual attire that she wore. A pair of low-cut black shorts and a t-shirt emblazoned with the OMNI Enforcer logo that was torn off at the midriff, obviously not professional attire, Derek noted wryly and appreciatively.

Her eyes then locked onto the Azrael brothers as Murata cleared his throat.

"Derek, this is…"

"One moment," she said, stepping past the two and sauntering towards one of the scientists who was standing over a console.

"Dieter, I was getting that weird feedback on the pod again, is it what we are thinking it is?"

"It's probably it, Keira, we were detecting that same feedback in your brainwaves, I'll have Charles run another simulation in the meantime."

"Thanks," she said, before turning around to the Azrael's who were still standing waiting for her.

"Keira Ashton," she said, extending a hand to Derek who took it, "I take it you're Azrael's brother and the pilot of that new mobile suit that just came in."

Derek shot a look at Azrael, who gave a shrug with a smile.

"How…did you?"

"How long you got," she replied, matter of fact, glancing at a chromo, "Because I need to get something to eat before we run another test."

"I have to run Derek, but why don't you join her. I think you'll find what she has…enlightening," Murata said, waving them off as he started to walk away.

Keira led Derek into the levels cafeteria and led him to a table.

"So, fire away," she said, making a motion over Derek's shoulder.

"You said you detected my mobile suit? How?"

She leaned back for a moment, before sandwich was placed before her, then waited until the man who left it was gone.

"What has Murata told you about Newtype Theory?"

"Nothing, I know he was babbling something about it a year or so ago, but he and I haven't been in contact for awhile."

"Oh good, the long method," she murmured before taking a small bite of the sandwich.

"Okay, the human brain theoretically has locked portions of the brain that aren't normally accessed in our day to day lives. Up until recently, we only had working theories of what goes on in there, and even then, it was just educated guesses."

"So what changed?"

"Axis. Azrael raided them right before the treaty for almost all the information they had. Lot of scientific information we never thought of we got from there and are being developing here. But long story short, they had a dearth of information on what they refer to as Newtypes. Newtypes according to what they have are people who have unlocked those portions of the brain that have previously been locked from conscious usage. Advanced spatial awareness, psychic ability, a whole gamut of things."

"So what are the military applications to this?"

"You're looking at one."

Derek raised an eyebrow.

"What we are working on in there will revolutionize warfare for the Earth Alliance. Imagine entire mobile suit squadrons being controlled by the will of one person, who can manipulate them with better reaction times and squad synergy than a squad of normally piloted mobile suits. Imagine if it can be done halfway across the world where no threat can affect the Newtype controller. All it requires is a strong Newtype."

"Two things, the first is finding a strong Newtype, sadly, I'm the only one that Murata has been able to find. It was planned for me to actively hunt for them when we finalize the project, but we'll just have to make do with what we have. Second, is the system itself. That pod contains three things that allows a Newtype to do what we described, the pod itself is a psychoframe enhanced with both a psycommu system….and a Zoning & Emotional Range Omitted System."

* * *

"Thank you for joining me," Chairman Durandal stated looking back from the windows out at the ocean that surrounding the megafloat.

"It is no problem Chairman," Nicholas stated, Haman nodding.

"Again, thank you for the assistance in trying destroy the remains of Junius Seven, it is tragic that our efforts were for naught and the sad consequence is the suffering now taking place on Earth."

"Indeed, Axis is offering any aid to the affected regions as of now, I take it you are doing the same," Haman asked.

"Indeed, however, it seems that current public opinion is ah…preventing such generosity."

"You're referring to the current demonstrations already taking place," Nicholas stated.

"Indeed, sadly the taint of the past still manifests itself no matter how hard we have worked towards an amicable future," Durandal responded, "there are those who still wish to cling to their xenophobic tendencies."

"You could say the same thing about the PLANTs," Haman pointed out, "it wasn't two years ago there was talk of extermination on both sides."

"Indeed, there are those same ghosts on our sides as well, and that is why we should all work towards a future in which this doesn't happen. However, at this time, it would be prudent to prepare for the worst. That is why I requested your presence."

"Continue," Haman replied, as Nicholas kept quiet.

"As soon as I return to Aprilius One, I will be releasing a statement ordering ZAFT to full military readiness."

"Are you sure that is wise," Nicholas responded, speaking up, "If ZAFT enters full military readiness, then it will inflame Earth to believe that ZAFT is preparing for war with the Earth Alliance. The Earth Alliance will accuse PLANT of deliberately causing the Break the World Incident as an attempt to cripple the Earth and as a prelude to war."

"It cannot be helped," Durandal admitted, "this is top secret information, but as allies to the PLANT, I feel that it is necessary to brief you on this. We have trusted information that there is a high probability that elements of the Atlantic Federation will be trying to attempt a direct attack upon the PLANTs within the next week or so. I cannot go into detail about what the source is or the strength of the force, but ZAFT intelligence assures me that the source is legitimate and the threat is real. If ZAFT is not fully mobilized, then a repeat of Junius Seven is inevitable."

"I see," Nicholas stated, looking to Haman.

"The reason I am sharing this with you is that I wish to ascertain if the PLANTs can depend upon Axis honoring the mutual defense pact that was signed after the first war."

Nicholas immediately spoke up, "I can guarantee that Axis will honor the treaty."

"General, I feel that I should be the one answering to this request," Haman replied, eyeing Nicholas.

"Of course, m'lady," Nicholas replied, giving a curt nod.

"Chairman, at this time, Axis is at peace, it does not have the power projection that it did have at our entrance into the previous war. Be this because of modernization, taking our economy off of a wartime footing, and replacing our heavy losses from the first war. While I cannot guarantee you the full support of Axis, I can guarantee the assets commanded by General Peacecraft during the time in which we move towards a wartime footing. We will honor our agreement, just as we would expect ZAFT forces to defend us if we came under attack, however, I refuse to place Axis forces into any operation in which ZAFT takes on the offense. We wish to be left alone, Chairman, while we figure out how to return to our homes and loved ones."

"An admirable stance, Lady Karn," Durandal agreed, "I thank you for honoring our pact."

"It is what allies do," she responded, giving a wan smile.

"Indeed. Again, I thank you for your time in speaking with me," Durandal stated, "My commanders will be in contact with General Peacecraft about the defensive preparations. General, Lady."

"Chairman," they both responded, before leaving him.

It was obvious to everyone as the two walked back to their private waiting area that there was a growing air of tension between the two.

It was after the door sealed to the room that Haman spun around and put her finger into Nicholas's chest.

"Don't you EVER undermine me like that again," she hissed, "you might be the commander of all my forces, but I am YOUR commander."

"Haman calm down," Nicholas responded, "we both knew what Durandal was going to request when he called us in."

"That doesn't excuse the fact," she responded, "that you are answering questions meant for me. We both know Axis isn't ready for any of this. We're stretched thin as it is. We don't have the personnel and material to fight a multi-front war, let alone get involved with ZAFTs endeavors. If we can just start building mobile dolls we can easily…"

"No," Nicholas responded vehemently, "no mobile dolls. I refuse to let us go down that road to where war is trivialized by dehumanizing it."

"And I'm telling you Axis can't support any larger forces than what we have without further automating our forces," she replied exasperated, "we both know Axis can't get too deep into this, we can't possibly afford it. Hell, we both know Durandal was the one who orchestrated Break the World, he's the only one with motive and means. This is the opening salvo of his damn Destin-umph."

Nicholas's hand closed over her mouth and pressed her up against the wall, his eyes blue eye sharp as he looked at her hard.

"Don't say that," he said quietly and firmly, "Not here."

Haman glared at him.

"Look, we both know it but we can't do anything about it right now, we have to play the cards we have in our hand. We have enough issues as is before we focus solely on Durandal, all the pieces are not in place."

He then leaned over and breathed in her scent before kissing her on the forehead.

"I'm sorry about that," he said, releasing her.

"You better be," she said irritably.

"You should get some rest, you've been acting erratic lately," Nicholas said giving a small smile, "you're working yourself too hard."

"You try running a nation by yourself," Haman responded, "then add on the sudden blackout of news about Mars Zeon, Scirocco running around doing what he always does, and….."

Her eyes then narrowed.

"That reminds me, I was going through a backlog of notes and I have to ask you: Where is Aloysius Knight?"

"Who," Nicholas responded.

Haman ripped herself out of his arms, "Don't play dumb with me Nicholas, I know all about you pulling Knight out of prison and putting him into your White Fang. Where is Knight?"

"Don't know, I haven't heard from him directly in almost two years now," Nicholas added in a mental _oh shit_ as he saw Haman's face darken.

"You don't KNOW? Do you realize exactly who we are talking about? The man is almost as unpredictable and insane as Scirocco, you're telling me that you haven't heard from him in two….no….you didn't. Goddamit Nicholas, please don't tell me you did what I think you did."

"Did what?"

"You did. Goddamit Nicholas, you put that….that….that….THING in charge…"

Nicholas shot her a withering stare causing her to stop.

"Oh my god…you really did. Do you realize what you have unleashed?"

_This isn't like Haman, she's usually calm and collected, why is she acting like a teenager on a bender…, _Nicholas thought, as he was about to open his mouth to respond in the negative.

"No, don't even explain it Nicholas, mark my words, this is going to blow up in your face. And don't you dare say I didn't warn you, when it happens. You put your trump card into the hands of a mad wolf."

"Haman…"

"No, don't," Haman replied, holding up her hand, and massaging the bridge of her nose, "just…leave. I need to think for a bit."

"Haman," Nicholas responded, "look, I have control of this, don't worry."

He walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Things will work out fine, we both know how well I plan ahead on these kind of things. Everything is going as planned. You are right, we can't get too involved in the fight just yet, and you're right to tell me that I'm getting us too involved, but some things can't be avoided. But you go right on ahead telling me I'm an idiot, it keeps me grounded."

Haman settled in to his embrace, closing her eyes as she relented and cooled. Nicholas always had a way with words.

"Look, just, don't have your own web hang you, I'm not good at rescue missions," she said with a small smile.

* * *

Kamille looked up to the door to the brig opening again, but instead of Heero and Lunamaria like last time, this time it was Talia.

"Who are you," Kamille demanded, still retaining his seat.

"Captain Talia Gladys, this is my ship," Talia responded, standing across from the cell and looking over a datapad.

"Kamille Bidan…age 14, not much more information your friends knew about you other than you managed to somehow end up on their ship."

Kamille said nothing as Talia looked up, placing the pad down on a bench.

"Understand me when I say this, but you are in a lot of trouble young man. Mobile suit theft is a crime punishable by a long time in prison, and there is no prison for a child like you."

Kamille bowed his head slightly, considering her words. It would be stupid for him to open his mouth, he realized, it seemed to always get him into trouble.

"What I am here for, is to make you an offer."

"What kind of offer," Kamille asked.

"I've been authorized by the Supreme Chairman to drop all of the charges being placed against you for your actions, in return, you will be drafted into ZAFTs mobile suit corps and serve aboard my ship. I've personally looked over some of your mobile suits battle data and according to Ms. Hawke, you have the potential of being a fine mobile suit pilot, if you are properly trained."

Kamille eyed her, all adults were liars, they always had some kind of motive that they never said. But he had to admit, he was in a lot of trouble, and he didn't have his parents to fall back to like he usually did.

He then sighed, bowing his head.

"Fine…I'll do it," he stated in resignation.

"Good," Talia stated, nodding to a guard, "Petty Officer Cheivers here will take you to your accommodations, you will report to me in half an hour in uniform. We have a lot to talk about. In the meantime, I have some other issues to take care of."

* * *

"Thanks for waiting," Talia stated, exiting the Minerva via the gangway to a pair of people who were waiting for her, "I'm Captain Talia Gladys of the Minerva, you wished to speak with me?"

"Maria Verne," the brunette woman stated, holding out a hand, Talia taking it.

"Andrew Verne," the blond haired man responded, taking Talia's proffered, "And to answer your question, yes we're married."

"Oh," Talia responded, "So what was this you wished to speak with me about?"

"We received several shipments for you," Maria replied, "It seems that ZAFT wished for you to not only get the necessary repairs, but it seems they have shipped some mobile suit upgrades as well."

"I see," Talia responded, wondering why the two before her looked familiar, but she couldn't put a finger on it.

"Well, there is a problem with that," Andrew responded, "You see, technically, we are not allowed to load any weapons onto any foreign ship. However, if you could do it…," he trailed off.

Immediately it clicked with Talia. Of course, ORB needed to retain its pseudo-neutrality, and doing anything except repairing would place ORB in an extremely sticky situation with the Atlantic Federation.

"That is no problem. I'll have my maintenance crew get right to. I would like to thank you for the prompt repairs you have made; you seem to have handled it almost as well as ZAFT engineers would."

"There is a lot of commonality in armor and design with the Archangel and Kusanagi class," Maria admitted, "back during the first war, the Archangel was based out of here, so we had some experience with assault ships like yours. A lot of the repairs were simple replacement of the plates and fixing the ablative shielding. The fact that your ship didn't suffer any heavy damage made our lives a lot easier."

"Still, a thank you is in order," Talia stated, "Is there anything else you would like?"

"Well," Andrew stated, "We would like to ask if you would like to join us for a meal. Our shift is nearing its end, and we gather it's probably been an extremely stressful day for you. If it would make you feel better, consider it a thank you for saving the Earth."

Talia paused for a moment, a little stunned at being asked the question. Then her mind shifted to her schedule. They did have a point in some regards with it being a stressful day, and she had allowed some furlough for the crew as R&R for the stressful situation, and they were already going on it.

"How about in thirty minutes," Talia responded.

"Sounds fine," Maria said with a smile, "We'll see you at Gate 12."

* * *

Nicholas glanced down at the resting form of Haman who was leaned up on his shoulder. With the Giga-Float reporting atmosphere interference, their return to space had been delayed, and so Haman had decided to rest, using Nicholas as a pillow for her own personal use.

He had to admit, that Haman looked innocent when she was sleeping, it was almost unimaginable that this woman was the cutthroat commander of Axis who commanded large amounts of men and waged war with a type of tempered fury rarely seen nowadays.

Nicholas ran his hand through her hair, noting for the first time that she had grown her hair out just a little bit since he had seen her before Armory One; it almost took a bit of that edge off…almost.

As he was gazing down on her, he almost missed the vibrating of his mobile; he only got access to it just in time.

"Peacecraft," he whispered, making sure not to disturb Haman, he was sure he'd regret it if he did.

"It's Trowa. You wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes," Nicholas stated, closing his eyes and sighing, feeling the stress from earlier returning, almost like a case of cancer that ate away at him, it annoyed him that something could so easily get under his skin. But then again, something was off, and it annoyed him intensely, "I need you to get together a full briefing."

"What on?"

"Knight. These are orders from me, but I want you to contact and get whoever you need, and I want a comprehensive briefing on him by the time I get back to the Gwadan. Everything Trowa, leave not a single stone unturned."

"Understood," Trowa responded, "Anything else?"

"Yes. Do me a favor and pass this to you-know-who. Mordred Stirs."

"I'll pass that word along. How long until you return?"

"Probably another sixteen hours. The local atmosphere conditions are still chaotic thanks to the impacts, but it should clear up soon. Durandal had to take the only opening earlier."

"We'll be waiting here for your return," Trowa responded, cutting the connection, and leaving Nicholas alone with his thoughts.

* * *

The gun range was probably the only place that Lunamaria could ever relax. Where she could focus on her issues, and take out a little of her problems by firing a weapon into a target. It was almost like meditation for her because it allowed her to be alone with her thoughts.

At least, it used to be that way, she thought as she once again noted the gathering behind her.

Since it had come out that she was a protégé of Heero Yuy, almost everyone had questions or merely wanted to be around her. It had gotten so bad at times that she almost never had any time to herself, and despite her happy go lucky look on life, it did wear her thin.

She took aim with her handgun again, and lined up the target downrange quickly starting putting rounds downrange until she had run through the magazine, she then pulled out another clip, ejecting the old one, and continued firing downrange. She then ejected the last clip and placed the weapon down after safetying the weapon and bringing the target up.

She bit her lip in disappointment at one round missing the bullseye, imagining the disapproving look and unsaid berating Heero would have given her.

Heero and Athrun were getting ready to return to the PLANTs, for what reason she didn't know of yet. But that was beside the point, she had other concerns.

"So what's everyone gathering for? The new pin-up doll showing off her gun skills?"

…Speak of the devil, she thought glumly, as she turned around to eye Shinn who had walked into the room, complete with Rey…who she almost swore had become Shinn's little minder. Ever since it had been revealed that Heero had been her instructor before transferring to the Academy, and then her performance after Heero had given her permission to actually use her skills, had caused Shinn to become suddenly hostile to her.

"Oh, that's a pity," Shinn stated, faux disappointment lacing his tone, "You got rid of your women's uniform. How are you going to sell yourself…."

"Stop it, Shinn."

"Oh I apologize, I was just saying what a lot of people think, I didn't think it would offend you if it wasn't true."

"Shinn, that's enough," Rey spoke up finally.

"No Rey, I'm interested," Luna stated, walking up to Shinn, but remained at a respectable distance from him, "Fire away Shinn, let's see what you think everyone is thinking."

Shinn began to open his mouth, but Luna interrupted him.

"Nevermind, I think I've figured it out. You think that somehow, I got the great Heero Yuy to teach me, because I made some moves on him. Pause and think about that for a second. I would have been 15 if that happened."

"That's not what I meant," Shinn lied, horribly.

"Yes, you did," Luna stated, putting a finger into his chest, "You want the story? I had to watch my friend get killed by Rau le Creuset. I then had to pilot that same machine that killed my friend back to where it could be recovered. So don't you dare think I did nothing to actually earn being taught to do what I can do now."

Before either knew what happened, Shinn slapped Luna, causing her head to snap back, and causing an audible gasp to go through the gathering.

"So you think you're better than everyone because of that," Shinn yelled, "You think that gives you the right to throw it all in our faces?"

So that's it, Lunamaria thought, he's threatened by the fact that I'm better than him. Of course it made sense, the fact that she had pulled a Noin, for lack of better term, at the Academy in order to hide her prowess, now had Shinn threatened because he was first in the class and gained the Impulse because of that. Now that she had taken the mask off…

"I never threw it in your face," Lunamaria responded, still feeling the sting on her cheek, "if you do that again, I swear Shinn, I will put you on the ground."

"Shut up Luna, you think you're so special. You didn't have to watch your family die because of that bastard in the Freedom…"

"That's it," Luna stated, finally having enough, "You know what I think Shinn? I think you're a damn hypocrite. You make all this talk about how the Athha's are responsible for your family's death, yet you ignore the circumstances because it allows you to blame someone and make you feel good about. So how about it Shinn, what if the Athha's had decided to surrender to the Federation? We both know Blue Cosmos would have been sooooo happy to deal with all of the Coordinators there…"

"You shut up," Shinn seethed, his eyes narrowing.

"No, Shinn, because I'm tired of you screaming about how it's everyone's fault. The Athha's did what they had to because it was their only choice. Better to die on your feet than on your knees, as the saying goes. ORB's Chief Representative lost her own father, yet she seems to have more maturity than you and isn't blaming anyone for what happened, she's moved on. And what about you? You're fighting to prevent what happened to your family happen to anyone else? Have you even thought that through? You're going to be a soldier. That means you're going to kill people, ergo, you deprive people of their loved ones who are doing the exact same thing you are claiming to do….what would your family think, what would Mayu think."

"You….you…..AAAARRRRRGH."

Shinn came right at her, first already coiled back to strike her, but she was ready. Lowering her center of mass, she brought her left arm up to parry his extended right arm away, and brought her forehead straight towards Shinn, connecting brutally with his nose. She could feel the crack of the bone as it gave away. She quickly backed up, entering into back into a defensive stance, gauging Shinn's reaction as he stumbled backward, blood already flowing down his face, and his red eyes like the embers of a growing wildfire.

Instead of saying anything, he came at her again, a primal scream ripping through the air.

Immediately Lunamaria began backing up, giving ground to Shinn as he unleashed a flurry of punches towards her head….always towards the head, she thought, noting how amateur it was, before this time she struck and struck hard, an open palm again striking him in the face, causing him to yowl in pain as she struck his tender nose, she then slipped to his side and grabbed his arm before beginning to take him down.

However, things didn't exactly go as planned, as she took him down, as Shinn suddenly began fighting back, striking her in the chest and driving the air out of her lungs, causing her to stumble backwards and then down on her butt, barely avoiding the punch aimed right at her head.

She kicked the side of his knee, causing it to give up under his weight and him to stumble and fight to maintain his balance as she retreated, it was then she caught a glimpse of his face again, as she scrabbled to her feet.

Now when she saw his eyes, she only saw blankness, almost as if he were in a trance, as she realized that it was almost like looking at Heero when they sparred. Immediately, she knew she had to end this before someone really got hurt.

Judging the distance, and realizing she had an opening, she immediately dashed at Shinn, but before he could get into reaction, she dropped into a slide, using the deck's well polished features, and her uniform pants material to slide the last two feet, and clip Shinn's left shin between her thighs, as she did that, she struck Shinn right where it hurt. Taking advantage of the strike she then swivel her hips and used all the energy from the slide to swivel herself around and use her thighs to twist his leg.

However, instead of it happening like she imagined, Shinn was hardly phased, so instead of the energy from the slide, the force on his leg, and her body feeding the momentum, he fell awkwardly on his arm.

Almost immediately Luna realized what happened as Shinn screamed in agony. Instead of her being able to take him down into a hold, he had fought back, and it had resulted in him losing his footing, and when he had tried to stop his fall, and he had stuck his arm out, but the torsion created by her body on his had caused it to land completely awkward, caused him to break his wrist.

Luna got to her feet, and got away as Rey pushed her aside and a few others of the observers.

"Get a medic," Rey yelled, before shooting a glare at her, as if everything in the world was her fault.

Luna immediately made for the door, as Shinn's screaming continued, but instead of screams of pain, they were screams of absolute malice directed at her…

* * *

Quatre sighed quietly as he placed another set of datapads down.

It was a report from Lowe about reports of phantom ships that were appearing and disappearing all over the Earthsphere. He had been sent by Quatre to check up on them, and what he had gotten back was troubling in and of itself. Lowe had discovered something far worse than simple ghost ships.

Someone out there was running a cartel of gundanium and helium-3 production. No one was claiming anything, but the entire operation seemed like a drug-running operation judging by the levels of secrecy and how the operation ran. According to Lowe, buyers contacted an account to negotiate a deal and once the deal was complete, the account was closed down. Within a week, the shipment was delivered via ships with mirage colloid which merely appeared, dropped the cargo at a designated drop zone, and then disappeared just as quickly. After a preset time, a message was left with a new "ghost account" for which they could contact.

Quatre was surprised that no one had tried get in on double-crossing the operation, but that was when he discovered that a company HAD tried to do just that. If the information Duo had dug up was right, then about six months ago, a company had tried to ambush the drop point and capture the ships, with the intent on discovering who their supplier was.

He glanced at the top pad again, making sure he had it right.

All the information that he had was incomplete, because less than a week later, the company was gone, as in completely liquidated. No one knew how, but they had heard the mercenary group had simply disappeared, then the stocks for the company became worthless overnight as the entire executive board were wiped out and their stocks were short-sold by an unidentified party. All legal attempts to figure out who did it had run into brick wall. And Quatre had a feeling it would stay that way for all eternity.

Either way, the other companies quickly absorbed that company and made themselves stronger and seemed to lead to a higher demand and a better amount of trust between all of them.

Quatre could already see the web start spinning in his mind. It was one of the tricks he had learned as he had taken over the Winner Corporation, the ability to tie larger events with the smaller events to create a picture of what was going on.

But something was missing, he looked at the puzzle in his mind, this was just a smaller event of an even larger web.

"Who are you and what are you planning," he murmured to himself as he leaned back.

He was broken out of his thoughts as a chime sounded, indicating his secretary wanted his attention.

"What is it, Mira," he asked.

"A Mr. Chang is here. He wishes to speak to you."

Quatre perked up. He hadn't seen Wufei in what…..a year now? Ever since the entire USSA thing had gone south and the Atlantic Federation had succeeded in bringing them to heel. Almost everyone had thought of Wufei was dead. The fact that he had gotten onto the ReHOME without him noticing or anyone telling him was easily forgotten.

"Send him right in," he stated, stacking the datapads neatly together.

The door to the office opened and Wufei stepped in allowing it to close behind them.

Quatre did a once over on Wufei, noting that he was back in his traditional China garb, how he got a new suit Quatre did wonder, and his hair was longer than before.

"Wufei, it's so good to see you," Quatre stated, extending a hand to him, which Wufei took into a firm handshake.

"Quatre," Wufei responded.

"Would you like a drink?"

"Sure."

Quatre turned around and got to his small cabinet where he kept some tea that he knew Wufei liked and began to get to work mixing it.

"Where have you been? Everyone's been worried since you disappeared a year ago."

"I got out of the USSA a few months ago," Wufei replied, "It was hard with the country being scoured by the Earth Alliance for us."

"Oh. Well I'm glad you are safe," Quatre said walking over to hand Wufei tea in a bottle while he had grabbed a coffee for himself, "The others will be glad to hear you're safe."

Wufei took a sip of his tea before placing it down, "I'm here for supplies."

"Oh," Quatre stated, "What kind of supplies are we talking about?"

Wufei reached into his tunic and pulled out a pad and handed it to Quatre.

Quatre took it and started looking it over it for only a minute before shooting his head up at Wufei.

"This is a lot of mobile suits and equipment Wufei. What are you planning to do with it? Start another war?"

"I can't tell you Quatre, operational security."

Quatre looked back over the pad, noting that it was almost everything he had in stock. It only meant one thing, and that was that someone had exact information on the Junk Guild, information that only a select few had.

"This is a lot of equipment, and it's not exactly cheap. I can't exactly sell it to you unless I have an idea on what you are going to do with it."

Wufei sighed disappointedly, reaching into his tunic and pulling out another pad.

"I had hoped you would trust me after everything, Winner," he then handed it to him, "On this is the information to an account with the market value of everything requested plus an additional ten percent. As to what I'm going to do with it, I'm planning to use these to restore the fighting strength of the USSA independence movement."

"Can I ask who's funding this," Quatre asked worriedly.

"Sorry, they prefer to remain anonymous, even I don't know who they are," Wufei responded.

_He's lying_, Quatre thought as he eyed him, he could feel it. _There's something he's not telling me. But if I push it….no, Wufei's been a good friend. He knows what he's doing…but I'll play it safe._

"Okay Wufei," Quatre relented, tapping a few keys on the datapad, taking the credits on the pad and depositing them into numerous Junk Guild accounts, "How would you like this delivered?"

"The coordinates will be transmitted in an hour," Wufei responded, "I wish I could stay a bit longer, but I have to get going."

"Good seeing you Wufei."

"Thank you Quatre."

He then exited as Quatre looked out the bridge to the surrounding Junk Guild yard in space. Since the end of the war, he had turned the Junk Guild into a major salvage company to where they were the first called to any salvage situation. In fact, the Junk Guild had become much like the Sweepers from his universe.

But that still didn't make them neutral, at least to Quatre.

"Mira, is Jess still in the fleet?"

"Yes Mr. Winner, he is."

"Tell him I have a job for him, one that will require his unique skillset."

* * *

"Welcome back aboard Colonel Chang."

Wufei gave a small nod as he sauntered past the captain who fell in behind him.

"The General wanted to speak with you as soon as you are on the ship."

Wufei paused for a moment, then continued walking.

"Have the Temeraire move into a shadow position as soon as the transports leave Junk Guild territory, we'll follow them to the rendezvous."

"Understood, Colonel."

Wufei continued on as the Captain walked away before entering the room that he had stopped in front of.

Immediately a whirr started up as Wufei stopped and let the room get to work.

Suddenly the darkness disappeared as the room was lit up by a view of the Libra at the edge of the room, highlighting a man sitting at a desk in the room, looking at a variety of screens scrolling information framing the Libra, which was bustling with activity, Jupiter hanging in the background.

"How did the Junk Guild go," the man spoke, as Wufei walked up beside him.

"Quatre suspects," Wufei said, "as I told you he would."

The man chuckled lowly, "I knew he would, but we have negated any type of military projection and support to any third-party players by the Junk Guild, we can't have them getting involved too early in the fight. We also need those mobile suits anyways, so it's a win-win situation for us."

He then fell silent as he looked over a certain display before typing something in a pad to his right, causing it to zoom in.

To Wufei, it was just numbers and letters, it was nothing he understood. The man had tried to explain it to him, and as brilliant as he was, Wufei had no real interest in it.

"Knight, what is the next step, you did promise to help with South America."

"I did," Aloysius Knight said, still distracted, before quickly typing something and then zooming it back out, "and I intend to honor our agreement soon, the pieces are not in place just yet."

Wufei crossed his arms.

"You were in the Mariemaia Army, Wufei," Knight spoke up, "you saw how it was built up. So you understand that if we move before the pieces are in place, then the operation will fail. Dekim Barton made a mistake of not making sure you Gundam Pilots were not negated."

A chime went off indicating an incoming transmission.

A few moments later, Edward "The Ripper" Harrelson appeared in front of the two but off to the side of the screens.

"Speaking of the devil," Knight stated, "How did your meeting with Serpent Tail go?"

"Well enough. Kazahana Adja stated that they are interested, but wish to meet with you before it goes any further."

"Fair enough, I'm surprised Murakumo was open to you acting as my envoy."

"It was nothing personal," Harrelson responded, "he was the one that demanded meeting with you."

"Hmm," Knight responded, cupping his chin, "now that, I didn't expect. That could complicate things. What's the status on Apollo and Athena?"

Edward had assumed the special operations of the White Fang for Knight as soon as he was introduced, his experience in the special operations branch of the Earth Alliance paying dividends as the White Fang's special operations had expanded and improved itself.

"They've made landfall and have already settled into the observation point. They reported their intention to meet with the target shortly."

"Good."

Silence fell back on the group as Knight stewed.

"Our sources inside the Atlantic Federation have reported that there is a strike group getting ready to move on the PLANT. In a few days time, the White House will issue a proclamation demanding that the PLANT disarms for inspections, failure to do so will be met with force. According to our information from PLANTs, Dullindal is holding a press conference announcing mobilizing their military. "

He paused, deliberating.

"Wufei, I'll meet you at the rendezvous point. Harrelson, bring the Persephone to the rendezvous point as well. We'll send the transports to Elysium for processing. When you both arrive, we'll then set course for PLANT territory. I think it's about time for us to get ready to raise the curtains."

* * *

"Heero, Athrun, good to see you," Lacus exclaimed after opening the door, then quickly wrapped Athrun in a hug.

"Hi Lacus," Athrun said, returning the hug, before letting her go.

She backed off, waving them inside the Yamato residence.

They walked by a brooding Canard who was lurking in the shadows a gun at his side, Heero nodded approvingly as Canard placed the gun away and fell in behind them.

"I'm sorry Cagalli couldn't come," Athrun said, "she's busy dealing with the Seirans again."

"It's fine," Lacus replied, leading them into the front room, "she has a nation to lead."

"Yah," Athrun said, remembering how Yuna had immediately taken Cagalli away after disembarking from the Minerva, he hadn't heard or seen from her since.

"Is Natarle here," Heero asked.

"She's in the back putting Relena to sleep," Lacus said, leading them into the living room, where Duo was already sitting and watching the news.

Duo didn't look back at them as he merely raised his hand in a wave, "Hey Heero, old buddy. Athrun."

"Hey," Heero said, sidling up across him.

"Mr. Milliardo and Ms. Noin will be here shortly," Lacus stated, as Natarle walked into the room and sat down beside Heero, their hands intertwining.

The room fell into silence as Caridad brought in some drinks, as if every party was trying to figure out what to talk about with the current albatross hanging around their necks.

"So…Heero buddy," Duo began, "You going to try and get Relena to stop trying to cause me bodily injury?"

Natarle laughed as Heero cast a questioning glance at her.

"He's referring to the tripwire connected to the airgun filled with marbles he ran across the other day," Natarle answered his unsaid query.

"Hey, they really hurt," Duo protested, drawing a smile from Lacus and Athrun, "she's only two and she's going psychotic building toy claymores."

"Maybe you should watch where you're walking," Heero pointed out, trying not to crack into a smirk, "After all having a kid is war."

"Hey….but….what….she….did you just get smart with me? Oh my god….Heero Yuy, the Perfect Soldier, is actually cracking a joke? What the hell is wrong with this world? I think I'm going to have to eat my scythe just to keep my job."

"You might get a case of indigestion," Heero stated, with a sly smile, "last time I checked, Gundanium doesn't break down in stomach acid."

"You know what…to hell with you," Duo grumbled, crossing his arms and looking away petulantly.

"Oh Duo, you know you like it," Natarle teased, "It's just how Relena says she loves you."

"Yah, she loves me so much she wants me in the ground."

"Duo," Lacus said, smiling, but stopped as she heard the doorbell ring.

"That must be Zechs and Noin," Athrun said, getting up, along with Heero who noticed that Canard had disappeared, and fell in behind Lacus as she led them to the door.

But as they opened the door, they quickly realized that it wasn't Zechs or Noin, but there were two people.

"Hi," the auburn-haired woman stated, "we just moved into the mansion a ways down and we were out for a walk and wanted to introduce ourselves to you."

"Hi," Lacus said, smiling warmly, as Heero over her shoulder noted the two.

The woman that introduced herself had a pair of brown eyes and mid-back length auburn hair, while her partner, who had blue eyes and blond hair that was almost as long had said nothing, was looking straight at Heero.

Heero's soldier sixth sense was already picking up that there was something off about them, as his hand crept to the pistol he kept behind his back.

"I'm Elois Revan and this is Michel," the woman said, as the man smiled at Lacus, "since it looks like you're having a gathering, we'll let you get back to what you were doing. It was nice meeting you."

"It was nice meeting you," Lacus responded.

The two then left as Lacus closed the door behind them.

"They seemed nice," Lacus said cheerfully, "I wonder where Miss Noin and Zechs are, they seem to be late."

"Looks like she's there," Elois stated as they walked away.

"Yah," Michel replied, casting a cautious eye around the surroundings.

"You think they will hit," she asked, almost nonchalantly.

"I don't know when, but it's a perfect setup," he responded, "I'm surprised Yuy's here."

"Yah, Intel was off, we'll have to take that into account. Have you spotted up?"

He glanced back over his shoulder at the mansion, noting that it was already in the distance, and then held his hands up fingers acting like it was making a frame.

"I have three or four positions we can set up. Ranges between 1200 to 1800 meters, we'll have to be careful with the topography, but it's workable, I'll have to set it up tonight."

"Alright, get it done," she said, "If Intel is good, we have a day or so."

He nodded, as they walked along.

* * *

A/N: Well there you have it and Pacifism is for the Birds and I are already working on the next chapter so it should hopefully be out sooner.


	12. Chapter 12 Crossing Paths

A/N: Well here is another chapter and a huge thank you to Holyknight and AlSmash for their help on the chapter making its posting possible, so now on with the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 12

Crossing Paths

Back at Axis Nicholas Peacecraft had arrived where Trowa was waiting for him along with a few Zeon soldiers. After exchanging salutes the Epyon pilot began walking with Trowa while his machine was off loaded from the shuttle. As the two began walking or rather floating through the spaceport Trowa was brining the military leader of Zeon up to speed on events while he was gone other than what he already knew.

"Are our defenses ready to repel any possible attack from the Alliance?"

"Yes as you suggested we readied our defenses as a precaution, but there is another matter I need to discuss with you."

"What is it? Something wrong?"

"It's nothing like that, but during our preparations to weather a possible invasion we came across something rather surprising an unknown MS in this photo brought in this derelict ship that was adrift in space." Trowa replied opening up a folder handing Nicholas a photo his eyes widened momentarily for a few seconds.

"I have never seen an MS like this before?"

"As you may have already guess it's another alien machine, but its pilot would like to meet you when you have time. However the person we found aboard the ship is someone I think you should see first." Trowa said as he passed another photo, but unlike this one this caused the young Peacecraft to stop in his tracks shocked to the very fiber of his being.

"Are you alright?"

"I…I am fine, but I guess this means what I experienced during that time was indeed a Zero system influenced hallucination and maybe so did Heero."

A short time later after taking care of a few essential matters that needed his attention Nicholas Peacecraft made his way to a cabin which had been set aside for the person in question. Trowa was following behind him as the two approached the guards who stood outside. The supreme commander saluted the men as they stepped aside before allowing Trowa to enter first followed by Nicholas himself.

Inside the room seated on a bed with a young woman who seemed around eighteen or nineteen years of age with long light brown hair that hung down pass her waist, a fair skin complexion and nail-blue eyes. She was also wearing a white suit with a purple-cravat like tie giving her a dignified and classy look about her. Nicholas knew who she was from what Trowa had told him, but seeing her was a shock to the young man.

Relena Peacecraft, the younger sister of his father and by all accounts his aunt.

"I have come back Relena, and I brought my superior for you to meet."

"It's good to see you again Trowa…" Relena said having missed the Gundam pilot's presence since she felt like a stranger here with the Gundam pilot being the only friendly face she has seen so far.

"Likewise…forgive if I was gone a little too long my superior and I had a few matters that needed our attention. A lot has been happening and we have our responsibilities to attend to."

"I understand, but there is a lot I do not understand."

"I know, but I hope to clear that up. But I can tell you that your brother and Noin are doing well."

"They are here too, but how?"

"It's a long story and there is much that would need to be explained."

"I see, but what about Heero?"

"He's here as well along with Duo, Wufei and Quatre."

"Then we're not alone on this strange world?"

"Yes, but they are all elsewhere. You see your brother is currently Defense Minister of the Orb Union alongside Noin while Heero is also serving in their military."

"Orb Union?"

"It's a small island nation which tries to remain neutral in the conflicts of other nations and it does not attack another nation or allow a nation to attack them."

"I see, but who is he?" Relena inquired. "He is your superior correct?"

"He is…"

"Do you prefer Peacecraft or Darlian Miss Relena?" Nicholas asked aware of the fact that Relena hasn't been told of his identity.

"You know about my past?"

"Of course my father told me everything about you as did my mentor Heero Yuy."

"Father…," Relena stopped, and stared at Nicholas for a short time, before a glint of recognition appeared in her eyes, the blond hair, the blue eyes….the uncanny Peacecraft resemblance…

"You said father….so that would make you his son and my nephew."

Nicholas nodded, "My name is Nicholas Peacecraft, I am the supreme commander of the Axis forces and pilot of the Gundam Epyon" Nicholas declared proudly as Relena absorbed this information, her eyes darted to Trowa who nodded.

"Well, this is a bit of information to absorb," she said with a smile gracing her features, "being called Aunt Relena might take awhile longer to get used to compared to the rest of this."

"Oh, I don't know, I think you will have a harder time understanding people in this day and age. Things aren't as black and white back when you were queen of the world. In fact, this place is a larger mess than that Romefeller Ball you decided to take potshots at Lady Une in."

"Is that what Noin described it as," she said with a sigh, "honestly, why doesn't anyone believe that I actually was aiming to kill her. Everyone ignores the fact that Une was a soldier and has reflexes for being under fire. Must be the "refined ladies don't know how to shoot guns" section of the bullshit guide to lady etiquette," she said, shaking her head, with a wry smile, "but I digress. Continue."

"It's somewhat complicated," Nicholas admitted, with a bit of awe, he had grown up with all the stories of how graceful and well-mannered Relena was, to see this was a bit….overwhelming to say the least. Maybe the stories were fudged a bit. He logged that thought away to pick Trowa's mind about later. He then shrugged, "but you just got here and probably would like some rest and not a nephew causing you problems."

"Oh, I don't know," Relena said, "I think it's my duty as an aunt to know everything about my nephew, I've got a lot of catching up to do."

Nicholas paused for a few moments, then looked over at Trowa.

"Trowa, take over with any preparations that need to be made. And if you would, clear at least the next couple of hours."

"I'll do that Nicholas. And Haman?"

"Let her know I'm indisposed and am not to be disturbed."

"She won't like it…"

Nicholas bit his lip as he looked over to Relena who had a questioning look on her face.

"Fine, let her know where I am and if she wants to know anything more she needs to come down here to find out."

"As you wish, General," Trowa said bowing his head and taking the hint to exit.

Nicholas refocused on Relena sitting before him.

"So, what would you like to know?"

* * *

"This is perfect."

Derek and Keira looked up from a set of displays as Murata came walking in.

"What's perfect," Derek asked.

"Well, it looks like LOGOS has gone off the deep-end of stupid and have decided to commit to trying a direct nuclear attack on Aprilius."

Derek shook his head, then looked at Keira, who had a quizzical look on her face.

"Intel has indicated that ZAFT has developed some kind of countermeasure to our nuclear arsenal, no exact details on what it is, but if it's true…," Derek trailed off.

"Then the attack will be a complete and utter fail, and those idiots will have wasted valuable military strength for a half-cocked repeat of what I did 2 years ago," Azrael completed, "Do those morons understand that the military is not their plaything. You'd think they'd have learned it from what I did."

"So, what are we going to do Murata," Derek asked.

"Oh, absolutely nothing," he replied, smiling predatorily, "I have a good feeling it's our good ol' buddy Djibril pulling the strings on this operation. We'll just sit patiently by and watch him screw up again, then we'll pick up the pieces and fix this floating clusterfuck of a hatchet job."

Keira cleared her throat, drawing attention to herself.

"I wish to inform you that Puppetmaster has just cleared its final testing phase," she said quietly, "While the GAT-04D is an imperfect platform in the application we envision, it will fulfill a stopgap operational role. The overall problem with the Windam is that the frame and design characteristics gives it only rough parity with A-Model ZGMF-1000 ZAKUs and is about 8% inferior with the current C-Models being deployed by ZAFT forces and this is its closest competition, current Axis models easily outperform the Windam in all characteristics except in ease of maintenance and production. With the Puppetmaster System the Windam can theoretically achieve rough parity in overall combat performance with the latest Axis models, however, this is based on the assumption that the Puppetmaster is near or on the battlefield, reducing FTL lag time to non-existence, by spacing it out from say, Earth to Aprilius, it is likely that Puppetmaster can achieve rough parity with the B-Model ZAKU Phantom, but that requires no outside interference."

Azrael waved it off, "I trust you Keira, if it wasn't for you, this program would not have reached the state in which it has."

"Thank you, sir. I would like to make a request."

"Go."

"I would like to deploy 18 Deltas with the task group assigned to the attack on Aprilius One, with actual combat data we can better refine how to improve on the Puppetmaster system. In addition to this, this performance data can help establish what direction we should take with further enhancements to the puppets in order to maximize combat efficiency."

"You do realize, even with FTL buoy capabilities, it will take almost a second for transmissions from here to the battlefield."

"Of course, however, we can move it closer to the battlefield using a cloaked warship, like the Girty Lue, using the buoys set up."

"How critical is this data?"

Keira brought her thumb up and nibbled on it, deep in thought, weighing the merits of what she was asking.

"It is critical. While we might be able to get it after the shooting starts on Earth, I would argue that because we only have one puppetmaster at the moment, it would do well to figure out ways we can decrease the workload on the puppetmaster. If this is successful, we can start working at how to deploy multiple operations at once, instead of having a puppetmaster only operate one operation at a time."

"A valid point, just….the Girty Lue," Azrael grated, looking at Derick, "and the fact that that is Djibril's lapdog."

"You could have the order made via Logos to test a new combat system. All we need is 18 hours to shift the system to the Girty Lue. The Extended regeneration chamber could work well as to link all essential systems because it is a hub. Also, we can use the units on there to provide point defense if anyone gets curious…and if we need to, deploy the Anubis in a shadowing role."

"All right, all right, you've sold me," Murata said, "Get it all ready to ship, I should have the orders set for you in an hour."

"Thank you, Mr. Azrael," Keira replied.

"Derick, come with me," Murata said, leading them away as Keira turned around and headed back towards the lab to get underway.

* * *

"_You sure about this," Natarle asked as she laid in bed, her arms wrapped around Heero and her head tucked into his chest, "you just got back and now you're leaving again."_

"_I'm sure," Heero replied._

"_You're not trying to do one of your perfect soldier gigs again," she admonished, bringing her head back to look at him, "you're getting too old to just go running around getting shot at, and then there's Relena."_

"_Would you like me to stay," Heero asked, "Athrun can take care of himself."_

_She looked at him thinking for a moment, then sighed, shaking her head, "No. You're right, something's fishy with the way all of this is working. At least, don't do anything as reckless as you usually do."_

_Heero gave a wan smile as he leaned down to kiss her, "I can't exactly promise…"_

_He was cut off by a sharp jab in the ribs, causing him to wince._

"_Alright, Natarle, I'll make sure I return…"_

"_Heero…HEERO."_

Heero's eyes shot up as he shot up, already taking in his surroundings.

"Calm down," Athrun stated, "We're on approach for Aprilius One."

"Hn," Heero stated, leaning back and closing his eyes.

"It's getting worse," Athrun stated, "while you were sleeping, the Atlantic Federation made a list of demands to the PLANT to disarm, disband it's government, and open itself up for inspections."

"Basically, subjugate itself to the very people that want it dead," Heero responded, "I don't take it that ZAFT is taking it laying down."

"No. In fact, it's already made an announcement that it will be mobilizing its defense forces. But that's not all, Axis just entered L5 territory and is announcing that it will honor it's mutual defense pact and honor its ally."

"Sounds like Nicholas's doing," Heero mused, "I have a feeling we're about to start seeing a cold war turn into a shooting war very soon."

"Yah….I wish I had a chance to talk to Cagalli before we left, but those damn Seirans…"

"It's alright," Heero said, "I've taught Cagalli enough so that she'll look out for herself. We'll see about getting you in contact with her as soon as we figure out what's going on here."

"Hmmm…"

* * *

Nicholas leaned back in his chair as he looked over the work sitting on his desk.

The talk with Relena had gone on for longer than he would have liked, but privately, he was glad he had an actual conversation and didn't feel like he was at war all the time. Even talking with Haman was like navigating a minefield.

He grabbed the datapad that was lying in the middle of the desk and looked at it.

It was the same mobile suit that Trowa had shown him before he had seen Relena.

All he could tell of it was that it was iridescent, almost like a rainbow, and while it had a shape, the distance at which the image was taken gave a poor quality to the overall shot. Whatever it was, it had quickly disappeared after it had sat there acting as a beacon for almost three hours, which left Nicholas wondering exactly who, or what, this mobile suit was, who was piloting it, and what was their intention.

He tossed it back on the table and ran his hands through his long hair, sighing, and trying to work the stress out of him as he entered a breathing exercise, but it was almost immediately interrupted by the chime of someone demanding entrance.

"Come in," he stated, settling himself into the chair to look at least somewhat professional.

Trowa immediately entered and stood in front of Nicholas.

"What brings you in Trowa, something happen?"

"Can I sit," Trowa asked.

"Certainly," Nicholas motioned to the chair, allowing Trowa to sit.

"I just came from the brain trust you had me set up on finding out what you wanted."

Immediately, Nicholas was set on edge, it wasn't so much what Trowa said, but by the tension and the feeling that he could sense, that made it look like he wasn't about to like what he was about to hear.

"And?"

Trowa placed the pad on the desk for Nicholas to put up.

"Would you like the long or the short version?"

Nicholas glanced up at Trowa from the pad and then looked back at it.

"Just give it to me."

"Well, I did a check on Aloysius Knight as you asked, and everything checked out…'

"Okay…"

"The problem is it checked out too well," Trowa stated, "There was something wrong with all of it that I couldn't put a finger on, but then I realized, it's a fake identity. Whoever did it did a pretty damn good job, because we didn't realize it until we went over it a third time."

Trowa got up and walked over to the wall panel, and slipped a card in, bringing up an image.

"Meet Alexander Theisman, born UC 0051, now known as Aloysius Knight."

Nicholas felt his stomach fall into a pit as he immediately recognized, even ignoring the younger face and short black hair, that he was looking at the very man he had placed in charge of the White Fang.

"How," Nicholas asked, "how did we miss this?"

"Because Alexander Theisman was dead as of UC 0076, the shuttle he and his family were on exploded," Trowa stated, "I don't know how, but it seems that Mr. Theisman missed his final destination."

"And what do we know about him?"

"That he's a lot more intelligent than we take him for granted," Trowa said, bringing up a set of data.

_PhD in Economic Theory, Master's in History, Bachelor's in Sociology. What the hell_, Nicholas thought with growing apprehension, then his eyes fixated on line of information that flew by.

"Stop," Nicholas commanded.

"You saw it too," Trowa mused, a serious expression on his face "Axis has a paper copy on file and I have someone digitizing it now. She says it's creepy."

_Waging War Without a Gun: Application of Asymmetric Economic Warfare in the Universal Century._

"What's in it?"

"From what she's telling me, it's a dissertation on how to collapse a nation's economy at the same time benefitting your own economy, the example was some fake nation, but what she was telling me, it was almost a spitting image of the Earth Federation."

Nicholas could feel the hairs on the back of his neck raise as things started clicking into place.

"Go get her," Nicholas stated, "quietly, and have her bring everything she has down here."

"Understood," Trowa replied, disappearing as Nicholas read more.

It wasn't ten minutes before Trowa returned with a young woman.

Immediately, Nicholas recognized the young woman as a former White Fang member, she had been ZAFT before that, but after the war had chose to follow him back to Axis.

"Lieutenant Ellington," Nicholas stated, getting up and proffering her his hand, "welcome."

"Nicholas," she responded with familiarity that he had bred in White Fang.

"Trowa had you looking in on this dissertation, what can you tell me?"

"Well sir, as I started reading this…I don't even think a dissertation would work, it reads more like an operational plan, the more I started noting some similarities with things that have been going on in the markets since right after the First Bloody Valentine War, I plugged it into our computers and had an analysis between this events and what was in this paper. And sir…the computers are saying that there is a high probability that the person who wrote this dissertation is actively and quietly engaged in the Earth sphere's economic activity."

"Is there a possibility that there is someone else that could be doing this?"

"There is a possibility, sir," she replied, after thinking a moment, "There could be a number of actors doing their own thing and creating a series of scenarios that the computers would see as possibly intertwined. I would need some time to go through the data and compare notes with it."

"How long do you think you would need?"

"By myself? At least a week, sir."

"Lieutenant, grab anyone you know that will help you and keep their mouth shut. I want you then to take them and pore over every facet and detail of that paper and all of the economic activity. If you need a direct line to any intelligence asset, talk to Colonel Barton. I want a report back in 24 hours."

"Sir," she replied.

"Sorry to press you, but this is critical. Dismissed."

"Sir," she responded, immediately turning heel and heading out, leaving Trowa and Nicholas alone.

"This is turning into a mess," Nicholas moaned, massaging the bridge of his nose, "why didn't I see it? I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't put a finger on it. I just waved it off as my paranoia."

"There's something else," Trowa replied, hesitantly, "something I didn't put in the file you have. But, the Lieutenant confirmed it for me."

"It couldn't be much worse, can it," Nicholas asked, raising his hands in frustration, "I mean, I just have handed the single most powerful ship in the Earth sphere to a fraud."

"The data upload you ordered to White Fang, with the updates from when those newcomers came through? On it was news of a colony gassing happening 2 months before….listed among the casualties were an Amelie and Isaiah Knight."

"…..Shit."

* * *

"This is preposterous," Cagalli snarled, slamming her palms down on the desk, "the PLANTs have done everything in their power to help prevent Junius Seven, and then they attempted to help Earth after that."

"Maybe so, Representative, but those were former ZAFT forces who dropped Junius Seven on the Earth to begin with. It is easy to understand the reaction of both the Eurasian and Atlantic Federation in regards to this revelation."

Unato Ema Seiran sat across from Cagalli and sighed inwardly, dealing with this young girl was becoming a grating affair, the fact that she insisted to run everything had only made it a larger problem for him. It also didn't help that his incompetent son could not rein in this stupid little girl.

"And why is that," Cagalli responded, trying to keep her temper down, "all that is going to result is another war, and this time it will be a lot worse than the previous one."

"All the PLANTs has to do is allow the Earth Alliance to inspect the PLANT and demilitarize."

"Like they made US do after they conquered us in the first war," Cagalli spit back, finally losing it, "my father did not die just so we can have yet another repeat of the same tragedies of the past."

"And what are we going to do then, Chief Representative," Unato responded, trying to keep himself calm, "the Earth Alliance is already demanding that we make a statement on the matter, if we choose to side with the PLANT then we place ourselves once again in the crosshairs."

"YOU DON'T THINK I KNOW THAT."

She paused causing Unato to also fall silent.

"I'm sorry, however, ORB has always been about equality and freedom, we do not willingly condone the subjugation of another fellow nation if we can help it. PLANT is innocent of the charges being levied against them. You know as well as I do how rogue factions can ruin the image of a nation and can be used as a pawn for other nations to legitimize their policy. Just look at the Sahakus."

_Gods, she really is a lot like her father_, Unato though bitterly, _too damn strong-willed for manipulation Yuuna will not be able to contain her either, damn that Heero Yuy. I really did not want to play this card, but I might have to burn the political favors._

"Is this ORBs policy," he asked carefully, "this is the policy that you wish for us to pursue."

"Yes, ORB will protest the actions taken by both sides," Cagalli responded, "and urge for talks in order to defuse the situation. Is there a problem with that?"

"As a matter of fact, Chief Representative Attha, there is," Unato responded, "like your father before you, you are wantonly leading ORB to destruction. We have the opportunity to stave off destruction by signing an alliance with the Earth Alliance, and you stand in our nation's way by clinging to your idealistic notions. You have two options."

"And those are," Cagalli responded, her eyes narrowing.

"You either resign, or we will destroy you."

"You wouldn't dare."

"I would and I have the ability to destroy you. After all, it was Morgenroete that created the Anubis."

"The what?"

"Don't play coy," Unato responded, smiling "the Anubis was an offensive unit designed on your father's and later your orders. What would the rest of the world think, that underneath your façade of peace and justice, you built a mobile suit of such destructive power that it could match with the horrors such as Wing Zero and Epyon. In fact, I have signed affadavits of personnel who claimed you visited the facility in which it was built several times, it's a pity that they are all now dead after the destruction of the facility by the Anubis as it was stolen."

"Wait? What? That's not true," Cagalli stammered, "I don't even know anything about this mobile suit."

"So you say," Unato sresponded, "So, what will it be, Chief Representative. What is your choice?"

Cagalli looked down for what seemed like a long time.

"How long do I have to decide," she asked quietly.

"You have until I leave this room."

It seemed like an eternity as the two stared at each other, the barely contained fury and hatred in Cagalli's eyes were not missed by Unato, even he could feel the malevolent hatred behind them, and he had no doubt that if he wasn't careful from now on, he would be on the receiving end of worse.

"You understand, the only reason I am doing this is for the sake of my father," Cagalli grated very slowly, "You and I both know that I had nothing to do with this, and only a bastard such as yourself could manipulate it to be so. I know you were the one behind this Anubis, and I will prove it, sooner or later, Unato. You have my resignation and my silence….for now, but this is not the end of this."

"I suppose not, but good luck my lady trying," Unato said with a smile, realizing his victory, "this will of course be presented that you have merely had a nervous breakdown, I suggest you retire somewhere and collect yourself."

Cagalli's hands balled up, "Of course," she grit out as she sought to relax her hands.

She then walked out from behind the desk and walked past Unato for the door.

She then stopped and looked over her shoulder.

"A word to the wise, don't get too comfortable."

She then opened the door and walked out, leaving Unato to sigh, and then arrange himself.

_Now to make sure she stays silent_.

* * *

Lunamaria sighed as she stepped up to the cabin door and wrapped on it.

"Come in," the faint voice of Talia sounded through the door, and Lunamaria entered into the Captain's cabin.

Talia sat behind her desk looking over a pad, Arthur sat in one of the two chairs in front of the desk, he only glanced over his shoulder at her before focusing back on Talia.

She then walked up to the desk and snapped a sharp salute.

"Lunamaria Hawke, reporting as ordered, ma'am."

Talia glanced up at her, then motioned towards the other chair, before looking back at the pad.

Lunamaria took the seat, but said nothing else, as Talia tapped through the pad, before placing it down and placing her arms on the desk and folding her hands together.

"I would like an explanation," she stated sharply, "I have an elite pilot currently in the infirmary with a fractured wrist and I have several statements that you instigated the fight."

"Ma'am, I only responded to lies being perpetrated by Shinn," Luna responded, "this has been a growing problem since before the Junius Seven incident when Shinn discovered my…training. Since then he has been belligerent and abusive to me, and frankly, I had had enough of it. I did not seek him out, however, he sought me out in the gun range. I merely responded to his insinuations and accusations."

"I see," Talia said, her eyes flitting over to Arthur and then back to Lunamaria.

She had been aware of the growing rift between Shinn and Luna, but she wasn't aware of the depths that it had gone to until she had Arthur start asking around, to say it was bad would be an understatment. She at times wondered exactly why Gilbert had saddled Asuka with the Impulse when it was quite obvious that he had serious mental instabilities.

But this was her ship, and she was disgusted with what the young Asuka was saying in the halls to people about Lunamaria, and she couldn't discipline him because Gilbert was sponsoring him.

Lunamaria was a good pilot, hell, Talia thought, she was an even better pilot than Shinn once she took the mask off after Yuy had given her permission. And now with Shinn down and the emergency orders to enter Condition Red and leave ORB territory immediately, she was down a pilot and a mobile suit…unless…

"Miss Hawke," Talia started, "I have looked into the situation, and while I am displeased with the outcome of this situation, I cannot fault you for defending yourself. This does not mean that you will get away with no punishment. However, for the time being, your punishment will be suspended until our return to ZAFT territory. Once there we will decide on an applicable punishment for fighting with a fellow officer. For the time being however, because Mister Asuka is incapable of fulfilling his duties, I will be transferring you over to piloting the Impulse…"

Luna's expression stayed the same, but inside she was both relieved and terrified, because she knew this was going to only make matters worse between herself and Shinn in the long run.

"In addition to this, I will be placing you in charge of Kamille Bidan. You will train him as well as help him through acclimating into ZAFT life. Is that understood Miss Hawke?"

"Yes, Captain," Luna responded.

"Good, get yourself down to the hangar and get set up to pilot the Impulse, we will be needing you at that station shortly."

"Aye aye, ma'am," Luna replied, standing up and giving a sharp salute, before heading out of the cabin and leaving Talia and Arthur alone.

Talia sighed and leaned back in the chair.

"Tell me I'm doing things right, Arthur," she asked quietly.

Contrary to popular belief, beneath the awkward and air-headed exterior, was a quite intelligent executive officer in Arthur Trine, everything he did was an act, in fact, it was one of the reasons Talia had selected him for second-in-command, because they were accomplices in their own little way.

"I'd say you're now playing hot potato with a fully charged positron blaster, Talia," Arthur replied, giving a small smile, "you know this will cause Asuka to become even more psychotic, if that is even possible."

"Don't remind me," she growled, massaging her temples, "I would kill for one of those Extended modification chambers just for Shinn Asuka, maybe if we ask the Atlantic Federation nicely."

This caused Arthur to frown slightly as he tilted his head off to the side.

"Just ignore that," Talia responded, "I can understand why Gilbert chose him to be the pilot of the Impulse. He's competent and he has a drive second-to-none, in a lot of ways, he could be another Nicholas Peacecraft in terms of raw skill. But he's damaged goods Arthur, he's a ticking time-bomb with all that mental scarring. He's just as liable to blow up on us as he is on the enemy."

"We do have Doctor Kowalski…," Arthur offered, "and he does have a degree in psychology…"

"If we did that, Rey would be crying right to Gilbert and we'd be worrying about him bringing the hammer down on us," she responded, shaking her head, "we can't forget that Rey is his damn handler. Maybe we can approach him."

"Dangerous," Arthur cautioned, "if we misstep, we could be answerable to Gilbert."

"I'll worry about Gilbert," she said quietly, "we do have a history after all."

"I wouldn't recommend using the "I sleep with the Supreme Chairman" card too often."

"Maybe so, but it's a perk that could be an asset," she shook her head, "we'll talk about that later. How are the preparations?"

"We'll be ready to head out within the next couple of hours, we still have some people on shore leave, but they've gotten the recall order as soon as we went into Condition Red."

"Alright, let's continue on as planned. We'll worry about Asuka when we get some breathing room."

"Right."

* * *

"Ambassador Eldridge, my lady."

The door opened to Haman's offce as a short, wiry, bespectacled man dressed in a stylishly worn suit, his eyes locking for a split-second on Nicholas who was space off behind and to the right of Haman.

"Mister Ambassador," Haman greeted, "I apologize for taking you away from your time, but I have a few things I wish to go over."

"Of course, Lady Haman," the ambassador replied, wiping the sweat off his brow as his beady eyes glanced somewhat warily towards Nicholas. Usually it was just him and Haman, but now the Supreme Commander of Axis Forces was present, obviously this was not going to bode well, why the hell hadn't he been warned about the announcement.

"I'll get straight to the point. What do your masters think they are doing?"

"It's perfectly legitimate reasoning," the ambassador began, "After all, the terrorists did originate from the PLANTs."

"Bullshit."

"Excuse me?"

"I said bullshit," Haman stated, "If you truly were concerned about the terrorists, you wouldn't be making these demands of the PLANTs. All you are doing is placing the PLANTs in a compromising position in which they will have no choice but to defend themselves. Instead of waiting to see if you could get answers, you use this as a reason to conquer the PLANTs cloaking it as merely "inspections"."

"That may be their choice, but the people on Earth see it differently…."

"If one of them is guilty, all of them are guilty," Nicholas interrupted, "after all, they are only Coordinators. They are all guilty in Earth's estimation."

Eldridge paused for a moment, seeking the words to try and placate what was quickly becoming a confrontation in his opinion.

"That's not true. However, there are legitimate concerns being given by my government that the PLANT is not doing enough to curb the problem…."

"They are a sovereign nation," Haman reminded bluntly, "They are not one of your protectorates you can run roughshod over whenever they don't toe the line. Either you tell your masters to back off, or there will be consequences."

"And what are you saying, Lady Haman."

"You may not be aware of it, but we have moved Axis into PLANT territory, we just crossed the border about a half an hour ago, it's not official yet, of course. We intend to stand with our brethren who we have signed a mutual defense pact with."

"That would be unwise," Eldridge cautioned, "The Atlantic Federation has no quarrel with you."

"Yet," Haman stated, "you left off the yet part. Because we both know, that if the Coordinators are bad with the populace, the outsiders are even worse. You just can't strike at us until you figure out how to manufacture Helium-3 and Gundanium Alloy on your own, well it's time to change the paradigm. If you choose to declare war upon the PLANTs you declare war upon us."

"You won't last long," Eldridge stated, "The Atlantic Federation will not tolerate this intransigence, regardless of your technological prowess, you are nothing more than outsiders who are meddling into the affairs of the wrong people."

"Get out," Haman said quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"GET OUT," Haman snarled, "better yet, your embassy is now closed, you have three hours to evacuate your personnel, after that, I will issue detainment orders."

The doors opened and several armed guards came walking in, weapons at the ready as they flanked the ambassador.

"This is an OUTRAGE."

Eldridge hesitated, and it was enough for Haman as she suddenly vaulted over the desk and came at the ambassador, placing her hands on the scruff of his neck.

"I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT YOU PUSILLANIMOUS LITTLE SHIT," Haman screamed as she dragged him along as he desperately tried to fight her off, and threw him out the room.

"And tell your masters at the Atlantic Federation, we will stand with PLANTs, they had better be ready for the reckoning."

She then nodded to a guard who brought a rifle butt down on the ambassador, knocking him out cold as the doors shut behind her.

It took some time for Nicholas to find any words to say at this extreme show of emotion by Haman.

"A little bit extreme, wouldn't you say," Nicholas observed as Haman placed herself back in the chair she had been sitting in.

"Don't you have commanding to do," Haman half-snarled, obviously irritated with herself.

"The commands have already been given…"

"Get out."

"Excuse me?"

"Do we need a repeat?"

Nicholas stood for a few moments, then shook his head, noting it would be better to retreat for now…and figure out how to get Haman checked out, she was acting extremely out of character for herself.

After Nicholas stepped out, and Haman was left alone, Haman sighed, as she reached over to grab a phone and dialed it.

"Yes, Doctor Ibanez? It's me. Yes…," she sighed, "I know I yelled at you when you demanded that I have my yearly checkup….yes….no…something's come up….I don't know, I just…look can we talk? Okay, three hours? That's fine, meet me at the private residence."

She placed down the phone lightly as she began tapping the desk.

* * *

Kurei watched with hooded expression as the newcomers exited the transport onto the Girty Lue.

He had originally received orders from Djibril to take himself and all the mobile suits off the Girty Lue and return to Earth with them, but then came countermanding orders telling him to stay where he was and accept a transport containing VIPs and another mobile suit.

What he hadn't expected was the mobile suit that had been sighted engaging ZAFT and Axis forces at Junius 7.

It wasn't exactly as he had suspected, and Paptimus's silence had been even more concerning. It was not like him to quickly send him a message from time to time, and now this. Something wasn't right, at least in his mind.

He watched as the pilot disembarked from the Anubis and floated downwards to the woman who had just exited the transport and looked over the hangar. Her brown hair flowed in the near somewhat weightless environment, framing the special forces Colonel's uniform bereft of the distinct hat worn by military officers, he noted the Anubis pilot as well, and saw the resemblance he wished didn't see.

He snapped a smart salute as the two walked up to him.

"Colonel Gugnir," the woman started, "I'm Colonel Keira Allston, this is Mister Derick Azrael."

"Colonel," Derick added.

While it wasn't obvious, Kurei could feel the suspicion and distrust oozing in the man's words, immediately red flags were being raised in his mind.

"These are your orders," she stated, as she handed him a pad, "you are to offer direct support to Operation Tempest."

"Understood," Kurei stated, "I apologize that none of my pilots are here, but they need some rest, we would have offered you a better welcome."

"There is no problem," Keira stated, her jade eyes shining slightly in the light, "However, we would wish to speak privately with you for some of the preparations because time is short."

"Of course," Kurei stated, as he turned and led them away.

As he led them down a hallway and into a lift, he worked hard to keep himself neutral and try and quietly answer the red flags going up in his head.

It was worse than he thought, because not 2 feet from him was an Azrael, and not just any Azrael, but the brother of Murata Azrael. Whoever the woman was…was of no consequence at the moment for Kurei though there was something immediately off that he could feel about her, he wasn't sure what it was, but it was there, like a light in a pitch black room.

"So, Colonel, what do you think of the latest ZAFT suits?"

"They perform….adequately," Kurei chose.

"The problem is the pilots," Derick added.

"….Yes."

"We'll see about solving the Extended problems," Derick stated.

The door to the lift opened and Kurei led them down the hall and into his room.

"So, what did you wish to discuss with me?"

"One moment," Derick stated, walking past Kira and tapped a series of keys.

"What are you…"

The vidscreen powered up and Murata Azrael appeared on the screen.

"Hello Colonel."

Kurei's blood ran cold.

"Director Azrael," Kurei started, "I didn't know…"

"That I was still alive? A lot of people are in that pinch," Azrael replied.

"I guess so," Kurei replied.

"I see that you've met Colonel Allston and my dear brother, so I'll just cut straight to the chase, since you're about to witness some very revolutionary technology."

"Go on," Kurei stated, his mind flying through the numerous possibilities, hell, the absurdities at how Murata Azrael was still alive, but not only that, was talking to him, when his commander was arguably Lord Djibril.

"I know who you are," Azrael stated.

"Excuse me," Kurei worked to keep the horror out of his tone as he glanced through the eye slits in his mask at both Keira and Derick who both had shifted from a more laid back body posture to ones ready to pounce at the merest inclination.

"Oh come now, Colonel. It's a fine act, but an act nonetheless. It's a credit to you and whoever your handler is in getting you into where you are, but not only that but an inside track to LOGOS, on top of all that. You have access to such delicious little secrets and tidbits of information."

"Again, I don't know what you're talking about," Kurei stated.

"Please, don't insult my intelligence…Kira," Azrael smiled as he took in Kurei's shocked face, "Oh, I am all aware of who you are, Mister Yamato, you can say that I'm somewhat of a fan. I have to say bravo, not a single person in LOGOS is aware that the go-to guy for all their dirty work is the very race of man they are trying to exterminate. It's almost poetic."

Kurei looked at the screen for a long time, before sighing, reaching up and grabbing the mask, and taking it off, to reveal the youthful face of Kira Yamato, believed dead by almost everyone from the Battle of Jachin Due.

"How did you know?"

"A magician never shares his tricks," Azrael chided.

"So what now? I take it you're not going to kill me, since you haven't already had me disposed of."

"A wise analysis. No, I really don't want you dead. If I had you killed, that would be a waste of a perfectly fine asset, and as a businessman, and that would be an anathema. I've learned a lot in the last two years, and frankly, the idea of exterminating the Coordinators I find to be a pointless endeavor. Simply stated, if Coordinators cannot solve their problems they are a dead end in evolutionary branching. I imagine George Glenn is spinning in his grave at the sheer stupidity that he created with the gradual extinction of an entire population, but that is neither here nor there in my concerns. What concerns me is hegemony. The PLANTs and their erstwhile allies cannot maintain their industrial hegemony in space in order for Earth to survive. So I will use anyone, be they Coordinator or Natural, to achieve this aim. It's very simple."

"I still don't see where I come in here," Kira replied.

"Simple, serve me," Azrael stated, "I need well trained and experienced people. You are both, and I believe you have an axe to grind with both ZAFT and a certain someone else who just so happens to be on the other side….convenient, isn't it?"

Underneath Kira was a roil of emotion as he knew exactly who Azrael was referring to, and he was right, he DID have an axe to grind, and he did intend to cash that check soon.

"And what do I get out of it?"

"Other than survival? You get a chance at revenge. And you'll have whatever you desire as long as its reasonable."

A long moment passed, before Kira began to smile.

"Alright, I'm game. However, I do have a request…."

As Kira began talking, both Keira and Derick relaxed as they listened.

After a short time, Kira stopped, and Azrael was like a cat that had swallowed a bird.

"Yes…I think we can do that…in fact, when you come back to Earth, I believe you will be quite…happy with your decision."

* * *

"Mr. Dino, Mr. Yuy, welcome," Gilbert stated as Heero and Athrun came into the central command center of ZAFT on Aprilius One.

"Chairman," they both replied almost simultaneously.

"Somewhat odd, isn't it, inviting you both here," Gilbert stated as he nodded off an aide.

"It is," Athrun replied, while Heero scanned the surroundings.

"The Earth Alliance has ignored every attempt at diplomacy since their announcement," Gilbert stated, "About a half an hour ago, we detected a massive Earth Alliance fleet approaching our territory, and about 10 minutes ago, they crossed."

He motioned to the display he was standing in front off, the flat panel display showing the PLANTs and the units being arrayed to interpose itself between the red icons that were entering PLANT territory.

"We've mobilized the majority of our fleet, and Supreme Commander Peacecraft has deployed Axis fleet assets to help defend the homeland. All we can do now is wait, and hope that maybe in this hallowed hour, sanity will prevail."

"And if it doesn't," Heero asked.

Gilbert paused for a long moment, then he responded with sadness tingeing his tone, "Then it is war."

* * *

Kira, Derick, Keira walked into the chamber that was originally the Extended pilots reconditioning chamber. Kira had made sure that the three had been moved to a safer place, the pods currently unoccupied, and the room now taken up by another pod as already several conduits were attached to the pod in it.

"I've gone over the information that was given, but could you explain to me what this system is," Kira asked.

"Basically, the pod is a control mechanism and cockpit for the puppets," Keira began, "If you are familiar with the weapons systems that Axis uses in its Qubeley and ZAFT used in the Providence, then the system is quite familiar, however it has a few things added to the mix."

"Such as?"

"Maybe I'll tell you after this," Keira stated, as she walked over to Dieter, "is it ready?"

"Yes ma'am, Operation Tempest will commence in 10 minutes."

"Good," Keira stated, as she took clothes handed to her by Dieter and began to divest herself of her clothing.

"Colonel," Kira asked.

"We haven't solved the internal temperature issues from the computing power of the pod, it gets close to 43 degrees centigrade in there," she stated, as she was already down to her underwear.

Derick smirked at the somewhat flustered expression of Kira as Keira finished dressing herself back in the clothing that Derick had seen her in originally.

"Well, then, let's get started, "Keira stated as she walked over to the pod and laid herself into it, as it began to close, "Derick, Kurei, I leave the rest to you"

It then finished closing, enclosing Keira in darkness.

* * *

"Let's go," Derick stated, "I have to get to the Anubis."

"Right," Kira replied, as they both left the room.

"Colonel."

Kira's eyes locked on to the source of voice, and immediately recognized Mudie as she sat on a shelf.

"Second Lieutenant," Kira asked.

"I was curious as to what is going on," she started, "I heard that there were some people on the ship and some secret things going on."

Kurei glanced at Derick, who shrugged, "I have to get out, you can deal with it."

He then left the two of them as he already rounded a corner.

"We have a new assignment," Kurei confirmed, "I was about to give out the orders to all of you."

"Is she pretty," Mudie asked.

"Huh?"

"The woman that came on the ship, is she pretty?"

"Uhhhh, I guess. I hadn't really thought about that. She is a fellow officer."

Mudie frowned, as Kira struggled to try and figure out exactly what was going on in the Phantom Pain pilot's head, this was the first time she had actually approached him like this. It was certainly…odd.

"Hmmm," she replied, frowning slightly, "thanks Colonel."

"For what?"

"Letting me know," she stated, as she got up from her sitting position and floated down the hallway, "I'll get to the Duel and be ready."

"Alright," Kira responded, completely confused as to what just went down.

* * *

"8 minutes Keira. Anything you want?"

"Can you put on some music," Keira asked sitting in the dark, running through a series of breathing and mental relaxation exercises she had trained herself into since she had been placed in charge of Puppetmaster.

"Any specific choice?"

"Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata followed by Vivaldi Four Seasons Winter 1st Movement," she responded.

"As you wish," Deiter responded, as the comm. was closed and the requested music started playing in the background as Keira refocused.

_Alright Keira, wouldn't do well to fuck up on the grand stage,_ she thought to herself as she forced out a breath.

To be honest, she was glad that neither Kurei nor Derick noticed that underneath the exterior that she had put up, she was an absolute raw mess of nerves, a near total complete wreck, and that was a problem as needed a completely serene mind in order to do this.

"Seven minutes."

"Cut the countdown," Keira bit out, "Notify every 2 minutes starting at 6, then countdown at 30."

"Problems Keira," Derick asked from the cockpit of the Anubis as he keyed into the link.

"No, just need a clear mind here, just keep the chatter down."

"Got it."

_Okay Keira, focus, you need something here, anything_, she thought to herself as she grabbed at a straw to get her mind tied to something to calm down.

"6 minutes, still showing excess activity."

_FUCK_. _ Okay, what do you have…there was Derick..and then Kurei..I mean Kira_.

It was then she found it, as a bubble of laughter escaped her, but then it became full-hearted laughter.

"Keira?"

"It's nothing," she got out as she kept laughing almost hysterically.

_The expression on his face as you stripped, the kid might be 18, but he acted like a total virgin_. _Might have to educate him_.

She then burst out laughing again.

_Really Keira, Mom was right, you are a queer girl. Thinking about getting laid when you're about to wage war in a revolutionary new weapon._

"4 Minutes."

She let out a breath.

_Alright Keira, time's up, let's do this._

When she had first done it, it was one of the weirdest things see had ever felt, as if she were in a lucid dream, except the body was 16 meters tall and could cause mass destruction.

_There_, she thought, reaching out, it felt like a stone in the middle of a stream, breaking the uniform water She reached out and embraced it.

And then she was there, as the pod lit up, signifying connection between her and the first of mobile dolls. From then as she felt for more and more of the stones, until a total of 18 mobile dolls were connected solely to her and the puppetmaster.

"Puppetmaster's online," She breathed, "Select Alpha."

Suddenly, she could view through the systems of the first Mobile Doll Windam as it sat in its cradle, as she assumed control of it, and moved it on to the catapult, she then saw, more than felt, as the other mobile dolls activated and began moving to the catapults and were launched out of the Agamemnon

And then she was in space, surrounded by dozens, no hundreds of mobile suits all primed for war, as arrayed in the distance, was the likewise deployed ZAFT forces colored in scarlet and Axis forces in yellow, ready for the coming war.

Keira was struck by a play she had once read when she was a kid, her father had always read plays to her when she went to bed, and while she had forgotten the play's name, it had always stayed with her for some reason, and wondered if there was a reason as she quietly spoke it.

"And Caesar's spirit, raging for revenge,  
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,  
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice  
Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war,  
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth  
With carrion men, groaning for burial."

"Keira," Kurei asked

"It's nothing," she said, "just something I remembered from as a kid. Seems appropriate, doesn't it?"

"…..Yeah…..Yeah it does."

* * *

"Gato, move the Napoleon to front and provide point support to the forward Nazcas, their anti-ms defenses are lacking and they will need the support against the lead echelon of Nelsons, its highly likely they will try to wedge through the middle of the forces. Nobunaga, meet up with the 2nd ZAFT Defense Fleet and support their offensive on the left flank of the Earth Alliance fleet assets. Alexander, hold position near Axis and provide point defense. All mobile suits disperse to pre-designated areas. Gwazines protect the Gwadans."

Nicholas looked at the approaching Earth Alliance mobile suits and felt a drop in his stomach as he realized that even with Axis's involvement, the Earth Alliance still had numerical advantage on ZAFT and Axis, though they had inferior suits in comparison, though, in the coming furball, it really didn't matter the quality if there were more guns shooting at you than shooting back.

"Welcome to the front, General."

Nicholas glanced over at the source of the transmission and recognized both Yzak's Slash ZAKU Phantom and Dearka's Gunner Zaku.

"Indeed Commander Joule," Nicholas agreed, "doesn't exactly look neighborly does it?"

Yzak scoffed, "No, it doesn't," he then paused before continuing anew, " General, we are aware you deployed your honor guard to help our forces, Joule Team would like to serve in their place for the time being."

"Thank you. Sorry to seem as if I'm hesitant, but we'll see what the EA's going to do first…"

"Attention all ZAFT and Axis Forces, Earth Alliance has once again refused to leave our territory, you are weapons free…," the voice of the commander of the Gondwana rang through the cockpit of the Epyon.

Nicholas frowned.

_So it begins_,he thought, as the vanguards of both forces began exchanging fire.

* * *

A/N: the war has started and all hell has broken loose. Now will the war be worse than the last, but for now only time will tell. But Relena has made a shocking reappearance so now the question is how will she take Heero moving on and having a kid lol? Thanks in advance for the reviews and maybe soon I'll get another chapter out.


	13. Chapter 13 Descending Swords

A/N: thanks for the reviews and without further delay here is the next chapter, thank you to everyone who have helped me with the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 13

Descending Swords

"Everest destroyed."

"2nd Fleet reporting 30% casualties."

"Uriel reporting critical damage and falling back."

"Axis forces moving to reinforce 2nd Fleet."

Athrun and Heero could only watch on as the battle waged on.

"Epyon and Joule team are moving to reinforce 2nd Fleet."

Nicholas cleaved through a Dagger L as he and Joule Team burned a whole through Earth Alliance mobile suits to assist the flagship of the Second Fleet as it streamed atmosphere from numerous breaches in the hull.

"What's the status on the Icarus?"

"She took a direct hit to the flag bridge, Admiral Grayson is dead, Captain Yamazaki has taken command on the Titus," Joule reported.

"Incoming."

Nicholas noted the flurry of missiles that darted in towards the Icarus and launched the DRAGOONs from the wings of the Kaiser Epyon to quickly intercept and destroy them, sparing the Icarus from destruction at least for a short time as it attempted to retreat.

"Yzak, engage the left-most Nelson, I'll handle the other two."

"Right."

Nicholas darted the Epyon forward and to the left as a beam flashed by, narrowly missing him as a cluster of Dagger L's tried to intercept him, only to get quickly picked off by the trailing DRAGOONs as they shoot ahead before returning to docks of the Epyon as Nicholas accepted the CIWS fire from the first Nelson as it was harmlessly defected by the Phase-Shift. He effortlessly cleaved through the bridge before darting away as a pair of beams slashed through the Nelson's hull, cleaving holes into it and rendering it adrift. He then quickly snap-shot his Buster Rifle at half-output to quickly destroy the other Nelson.

"Gato, what's the status?"

"It's a stalemate, General," Gato commented, "losses are especially high in the vanguard units of both sides. One of the Gwazines, the Perseus, took heavy damage to the superstructure and has fallen back to Axis. Other ships have received various damage reports. ZAFT forces have not initiated a breakthrough, nor have the EA."

_Makes sense_, Nicholas thought, _Axis ships and mobile suits better armored and protected than the ZAFT or EA, but they are both quite efficient at killing one another. But this makes no sense, EA wouldn't launch this attack unless…._

"All units, Gondwana is under heavy attack and is requesting immediate reinforcements."

_THE HELL?_

"What do you mean, Gondwana's under attack, it's in the far rear," Dullindal asked.

"We don't know sir, all we know is that Gondwana reported contact with 18 mobile suits and then it went off the air requesting assistance. The escorting Nazcas are also reporting they are under heavy attack."

* * *

"Delta," Keira stated, switching to another Windam the Dopplehorn Pack lit up on her displays and she fired the pair of recoilless rifles into the bridge of one of the Nazca's as it sought to come to the aid of the large super carrier.

It had run off without a hitch, as soon as she had deployed the Windams, she had sent them on a ballistic course around the arena and into the rear area of the ZAFT Fleet. The lack of an infra-red signature had rendered them near invisible as they had approached the ZAFT Gondwana class. The only warning they had that they were about to be under attack, was the sudden target acquisitions before she had every single one of her Dopplehorn Windams deposit recoilless rifle rounds into the hangars and engines of the Gondwana, rendering the lumbering ship crippled and adrift.

The surprise was complete and while the ZAFT assets had moved to help, the other Windams had ambushed the mobile suits by placing them in a deadly crossfire.

All in all, for the cost of one Windam destroyed, and another lightly damaged, she had crippled one ZAFT super carrier, crippled another two Nazcas, completely destroyed a third, and destroyed 33 mobile suits.

It was still complicated, even with the Mobile Doll interface assistance, to control all the Windams in a real combat setting, it took every bit of her concentration.

But it was working; the Gondwana was the forward command ship, which was causing a shock through the ZAFT command structure as it tried to reorganize itself into a command structure, and that was all that was needed to start a breakthrough.

It was then she sensed it….not sensed as much as felt….a presence, it was odd….it was new.

"Keira, Epyon's incoming," Dieter stated in her headset, causing her to shake off the odd feeling as she refocused on the approaching Epyon.

_Well Keira, here we go, let's see what we can do against one of the best pilots and mobile suits in the Earthsphere._

"Kilo," she stated, switching to the foremost Windam that was closest to the Epyon, as she reached out to the mobile suits and guided them into a new formation.

_Concentrate….here we go._

She still couldn't shake that feeling that was nibbling at the back of her head though as she had the Windams break into a starburst pattern as a Buster Rifle ripped through where they just were and she dumped the rest of her Windams missiles right at the Epyon, then switched them to laser-lock and guided them, intending to surprise him with this display.

_It won't work against Phase Shift, but I need to slow him down until I can get him where I want him._

* * *

_Now this is just damn strange_, Nicholas thought, as he watched the Buster Rifle hit absolutely nothing, and immediately went into a series of evasions as a flurry of beam and missile fire were his reply for the attempt.

He glanced at the recharge indicator for the Dragoons noting that he still had a few more seconds until they were able to deploy again. Before focusing on the missiles again.

That was when they sprung their trap and spread out, completely enveloping him, and causing him to spin use the buster rifle to burrow out a hole from the globe of missiles and avoid the majority of the missiles, but not before they did inflict some hits.

_Switched to laser-guided, very odd_._ But I have you now._

He then deployed the DRAGOONs as he dodged through another fusillade of beam fire, absorbing a few of the errant shots with the beam shield.

The DRAGOONs broke off and split, avoiding the counter-fire as they paired up and engaged only four of the Windams, they then unloaded their deadly beams.

Only to destroy one, for the cost of two of the DRAGOONs.

Nicholas's eyes narrowed as he fired off the Callidus at one of the Windams that had dodged out of the way of the DRAGOON pair, but watched as another Windam interposed itself with its shield, absorbing the attack, he then barreled out of the way as a Windam swiped with its beam saber at where he had just been, and a pair of anti-armor penetrators slammed into him, knocking him off balance.

It was then when his DRAGOONs picked off another, but it didn't seem to fluster any of the others at all, as they kept driving home their attack.

_Yeah, definitely odd, the moves are too fluid and too precise to be individual humans…they have to be mobile dolls._

His eyes widened as fired one of the Buster Rifle's and swept it towards a pair of the Windam's, only to watch four others interpose with their shields, and absorb the blow. As another pair of Windam's drove in and engaged him, their beam sabers connecting with his, before a Doppehorn Windam appeared suddenly on his threat detection, unloading repeated recoilless fire into the Epyon's back. He barely had enough time to swing around with his leg to slice through both of them and block the beams from that one.

_They aren't mobile dolls….they're too coordinated to just be mobile dolls controlled by a human being…it has to mean...it can't be….the Earth Alliance shouldn't have any of them._

* * *

Keira grit her teeth as three more of her charges disappeared, sweat pouring down her face as the stress and heat of the pod inflicted its stress on her.

The Epyon sliced the "ace in the hole" she had go dead a she tried to lead him to that ambush, leaving her with only 12 of her Windams as she kept up the fire.

_He's too damn good, and I'm running out of options. I can maybe keep up this fire another two to three minutes before I run out, closing the range will make it too predictable, his DRAGOONs need to recharge, and half of my Windams remaining shields are a crapshoot from all of the blocking._

Another one blinked off as it took a Callidus straight in the face.

_Cool it Keira, you're getting distracted_, she thought as she switched back to Delta.

_Let's try this…_

She then boosted the Windam forward as the rest fell into a new formation to support it.

* * *

"New Contacts, bearing 000," an operator shouted in the command center, "Polar Orbit reconnaissance confirms that they are carrying nuclear missiles in mobile suit missiles."

A hush fell over the command center.

"Deploy the Stampeder," Dullindal ordered.

"This was just one big decoy," Yzak shouted as the announcement rang through the ranks of ZAFT.

Nicholas grimaced as he knew he should have seen it, all the intel and the actions pointed at it, even ZERO had shown him it as a distinct possibility.

Nicholas threw himself into a hard break as the Windam's began their own counterattack, bringing him back to the now.

_It's just not possible, how the hell did they get their hands on a Newtype._

He dodged to the left as one of the Windams came down from above with a beam saber, but then he had to block as another slashed horizontally, but it quickly darted away as he tried to slash it, as yet another came darting up and creased the leg with its beam saber.

He tried to deploy his DRAGOONs again, but this time they were ready as suddenly he lost all but one as they detached, but at the cost of another as his Callidus found the range, punching through the already weakened shield and coring the Windam.

_Ten left what are you going to do?_

After the First Bloody Valentine War, a massive effort was undertaken in ZAFT R&D in systems that could counter-act another nuclear strike if the Earth Alliance ever tried again. Numerous failures had taken place, but where there was failure there was also a success.

It was this success that bred the system that was now currently attached to a lone Nazca Class ship as it interposed itself between the oncoming attack.

The Neutron Stampeder, as it was referred to, was designed for only one thing in mind, to bombard the fissile materials with neutrons, igniting them prematurely and preventing the destruction of the warhead's target. The theory was that it would detonate all nuclear weapons in its field of fire. While preliminary tests had shown promise, this was the first time it was actually being deployed in the field.

All the hopes of an entire nation rested upon this one ship and an untried system.

But that hope would be rewarded as the ship lined itself up on the oncoming force and the missiles that had just been launched, and fired.

Spectacular would have been an understatement, as hundreds of nuclear warheads were destroyed outright wreathing space in brilliantly colored balls of fire and energy as the detonations did little except create an expensive and macabre fireworks display as all nuclear missiles, including the ones still in the mobile suit launchers and the ships, also detonated, taking them with it

Nicholas had little time to pay heed to what was going on as what seemed to be the leader wrapped itself around the Epyon, and detonated.

The explosion rocked the Epyon, while not causing any damage because of the Phase-Shift; the same could not be said for the pilot as he was shaken in the cockpit.

Nicholas tasted blood in his mouth as he brought the Epyon around and slashed through another one with his whip and another he back-handed with the beam sword, slashing the chest open and rendering it adrift.

But it wasn't enough as another one of the Windam's stabbed into the Epyon with its beam saber, ripping right into the lower abdomen, blasting the Epyon backwards as Nicholas was thrown forward in the cockpit.

It was then he heard screaming in his head.

An anguished scream sounded in the cockpit of Anubis and in Kurei's head as much as it was in the bridge.

"Get….GET OUT OF MY HEAD," Keira screamed.

It felt like her head was on fire as what seemed to be completely alien thoughts, completely indecipherable to her, flooded into her mind and seemed like someone was jabbing a red-hot poker into her mind and stirred it.

"Shut it down, SHUT IT DOWN NOW," Dieter yelled in the control room.

"The system is rejecting outside deactivation commands."

"What the hell do you mean, that's impossible," Dieter quickly made decision, "cut the power now."

"But that could damage the system."

"I SAID CUT THE POWER!"

Nicholas felt it…no, felt her. Whoever it was controlling those Windams. He could hear her screams in his head.

_Keira….Ashton…_suddenly popped into his mind, completely without any reason, it just came into it. But then with that came something else. As if a great wind buffeted him, but it did nothing to him.

_GET THE HELL OUT OF MY MIND_

Then it disappeared abruptly as abruptly as it had appeared, but not before leaving him shaken as he sensed something else in the periphery, before he was back in the cockpit of the Epyon, and the Windams drifting uselessly around him.

_What the hell just happened, _he thought in stunned silence as the reports of the Earth Alliance pulling a withdrawal and the cheers of ZAFT soldiers.

"General Peacecraft."

Nicholas was brought out of his sudden brooding.

"Gato, dispatch search and rescue parties for the battlefield."

"Is there something wrong General?"

"I honestly don't know," Nicholas admitted.

"Keira. KEIRA!"

Keira's eyes snapped open as they refocused on her surroundings, to see Dieter and Kurei hovering over her.

She realized the pod was open as she reached up to massager her forehead.

"I'm fine…."

"That's not what it sounded like," Kurei stated, "what happened out there?"

"….I don't know, one second I was fine, and then it felt like someone was dropping napalm in my brain. It was almost like….Peacecraft was in my mind, but that's impossible….right?"

Kurei frowned, and then took the hand that Keira held out to help her up.

"Let's get you looked at."

"I'm fine," she insisted.

"No, Keira, that's an order," Kurei insisted.

Keira balked as she stared at him.

"Please Keira," Dieter asked, "just have the doctor give you a once over."

"Fine. Fine, let's just get this over with."

* * *

"What's the losses," Dullindal asked quietly, as the commander center began dying down.

"32 ships lost, another 20 in need of a drydock, and 44 more will need repairs. Mobile suit losses are expected to reach at least 300."

"And Axis?"

"Peacecraft is reporting that they've lost no ships, but will require drydock for at least one of their Gwadans and two of their Gwazines, the rest will need various states of repair, without those ships, it would have been a lot worse for us. They suspect they have lost close to 80 mobile suits.

"Once again UC technology proves its worth," a general muttered.

"Be thankful that it was on our side, General. We should be grateful to Lady Karn for honoring our alliance when it was a difficult position," Dullindal retorted, before settling his eyes on Athrun and Heero.

"So, are you surprised? Earth once again decides to use nuclear weapons against us and repeat Junius 7."

"Why would they do it," Athrun demanded, "We just got out of the horrors of the last war, and they want to do it again without thinking about the consequences. This is going to turn a lot of people against their plight. If the PLANTs can be stamped out, who would dare stand up to them?"

"Because it makes sense Athrun. They had the opportunity to wipe the PLANTs out with a logical reasoning. By the time the ashes settled, the people that wanted this done will have already disappeared back to the shadows. Athrun, there's only one group who would authorize this."

"Blue Cosmos? I thought they were wiped out."

"Obviously not," Dullindal mused, "Athrun, Heero, I apologize to do this to you, but I have to make a statement. Can we talk further tomorrow?"

"Of course," Athrun replied as Heero nodded.

"Good, the Lieutenant will see to your accommodations."

* * *

"Zechs, we need to talk."

Milliardo looked past the two ORB Generals who were seated in front of his desk."

"Defense Minister, I apologize, but she demanded to speak to you."

"It's fine."

"General Todou, General Yamanaka, would you please excuse us."

"Of course, Defense Minister."

The two generals got up and left Cagalli and Zechs alone in his office.

"Now, Chief Representative, what is it that you wanted to talk about?"

"What the hell is Anubis? Who authorized it?"

Zechs paused as he stared at Cagalli for a moment, and then motioned her to seat.

"Project Amatsukaze was a project spearheaded by Morgenroete to create a countermeasure to the Wing Zero and Epyon, meant to be deployed only in the event that those weapons would be used against us. Anubis was the cover story and project to divert attention from the core project. The prevailing theory was that it would be used both as a deterrent and a countermeasure to any foreign aggression. However, it was stolen before the Armory One incident, and a large portion of the researchers were killed."

"Who authorized it?"

Zechs hesitated, "Princess, the Amatsukaze was designed in the best interests of ORB."

"I didn't ask that. Who. Authorized. It."

Zechs sighed, "Your father did."

"Why?"

"…I can't tell you, Princess."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T TELL ME?"

"Because I was sworn to secrecy by your father, and I will not dishonor his memory by divulging this information to you."

Cagalli was deflated as she place her face in her hands as she bowed it, "Did the Attha house fund it?"

"No. Most of the money was through the Seirans and the Rabenstranges."

"I see," Cagalli said quietly, she then got up and headed towards the door

"Is something wrong, Princess?"

Cagalli barked with strangled laughter, "I'm no longer Chief Representative. Thanks Dad for all the wonderful shit you left me."

She then walked out of the office, as Zechs got up to follow after her.

"Princess, wait."

Cagalli stopped.

"Just because I can't tell you, doesn't mean I don't want to tell you.

Cagalli shrugged, "Whatever. It's no longer my problem. I'm done with all of this, the politics, the bullshit, the fighting, I've had enough. Seiran did me a favor," she said with a pitiful laugh, as if she was trying to stop herself from crying, but she stopped herself, "I apologize for taking your time. Good day, Defense Minister."

She then left Zechs as she quickly walked away.

* * *

Captain Gustavo Cunningham fought hard to keep his fury in check as he looked over the shattered bridge of the Concordia; one of the last "intact" Agamemnon's left, if that was even a good description for the mess that was his ship.

All of what they had done for nothing. The lost lives, the shattered ships and mobile suits, all to be a decoy for a nuclear strike that failed miserably. A nuclear strike that ran in the face of everything that the Earth Alliance stood for, at least the Earth Alliance Octavius believed in.

_Goddamn Blue Cosmos_, he thought grimly as he surveyed the bridge again. Just that thought alone could get him "disappeared". The Blue Cosmos was everywhere, like the old political commissars from the old Soviet Union, only now, there was no clear definition, the informants were everywhere. The old guard like Cunningham was one of the few left after the purge when the Blue Cosmos had taken over. He was also one of the few protégés of Rear Admiral Lewis Halberton that was left. He had buried himself deep and shielded himself by appearing completely apathetic to any cause, Coordinator or Natural.

He snorted, _some effort, now they are going to need a scapegoat for this debacle, and as the senior ranking member of this clusterfuck, my head is on the platter. Oh well, at least when it comes, I'll go down fighting. Maybe take some of those Blue Cosmos bigwigs with me in the process._

Unbeknownst to him, things were about to radically change as he moved closer and closer to the Moon.

* * *

"Breaking news. About 30 minutes ago, it was confirmed by Supreme Council staffers that a nuclear missile attack had been attempted upon the PLANTs by Earth Federation Space Forces in response to PLANT refusal to disarmament. All that we can confirm now is that the attack has failed. We are expecting the Supreme Chairman to issue a statement shortly."

Lacus, Natarle, Murrue, Mu, Andrew, and Canard all sat in front of the vidscreen as various images flashed by from the battle that had taken place near the PLANTs.

"I can't believe they actually decided to use nuclear weapons again," Mu snarled, "of all the stupid…"

"It was the most likely scenario when we discussed it yesterday," the Desert Tiger replied, "Still; it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that they would descend into this madness again."

Natarle jumped up as her mobile sounded and quickly grabbed it, "Heero. Where are you?"

She scurried into another room leaving Canard quietly watching Lacus as her face was a hard-to-read slate.

It had been two years since he had assumed protection of Lacus, as a favor to Kira. Since then, he had seen almost every facet of Lacus's personality, and he had sensed and seen the profound sadness that hid behind every single smile, every little laugh, ever kind thing she had done. He knew Heero sensed it as well, but he wasn't sure anyone else did. Lacus had too much acting in her life that those who didn't learn reading human body language would have missed it.

But now, there was nothing, if not a haunted look in her eyes, as he bet that she was reliving the last battle from two years ago, and the losses. The loss of Kira still hurt deep down in her, even as she insisted he was still alive, as every day went on, that hope faded like the setting sun.

The door opened to the mansion as Duo and Hilde came in.

"Hey, you guys watching…"

"Yes Duo, we are," Canard deadpanned, mildly annoyed.

"Sheesh, tone it down Heero Jr. It was only a simple question."

Canard scowled, "And how the hell did you get past all the security systems."

"I've known Heero long enough to know all of his tricks," Duo said simply, as he guided Hilde down to a couch and settled himself in.

Hilde Schbeiker, former "guest" of the Extended program, was still a mess, Canard noted as he gave her a once over, before looking back at Lacus. Even two years later, there were times when a mood swing would suddenly hit Hilde and she could go into a rage or just ball up and shut down. It was an after-effect of the drugs and torture that had been inflicted upon her. Duo was giving her the best medical care he could, but there were times that even Duo admitted to others, that he didn't know if Hilde would ever be herself again.

"Is Heero okay," Hilde asked.

"Natarle's talking to him right now," Murrue stated, "I'll go and check on the kids, we're making enough noise. Mu, Andrew, try and keep the arguing down."

"We weren't arguing," Waltfeld responded, "we were only having a gentlemen's disagreement."

"Is that what you two call it now? Just don't let it devolve to where you spend several hours in the simulator trying to one-up each other."

"For your information, those simulator runs were tactical discussions."

"When some of those turn into attempts to go flying around in Murasame's shooting each other with the paint balls, I think it gets past simple tactical discussions."

Murrue then walked off, leaving the two "gentlemen" back to their lively "discussions".

"How are you doing Lacus," Duo asked, concern lacing his features.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm fine," Lacus said, "just a little tired."

Duo's eyes darted at Canard who had given an imperceptible shake of the head unconsciously to Lacus's lie.

"Really, I am," Lacus stated, "Taking care of the kids after Reverend Malchio's home was destroyed has been a really absorbing thing."

"Don't run yourself too ragged," Hilde added.

"Oh, I'm not."

They all stopped as a chime sounded on the vidscreen, signifying yet another breaking news event, Natarle and Murrue both also came back in.

"We are now taking you to Aprilius One, where the Supreme Chairman is about to make a statement."

It then showed the Supreme Chairman walking up to the podium and pausing for a moment, before beginning.

"Good day ladies and gentlemen, at precisely 0000 Hours GMT, Earth Alliance Forces launched an attack upon the PLANTs, under the auspices of our failure to meet the demands of the Earth. This attack was repelled. At the same time, another attack was launched directly upon Aprilius One by Earth Alliance forces carrying nuclear missiles in an attempt to wipe out the majority of PLANT's military and political command structure. We also detected numerous launches on other key PLANTs by these same forces. These attacks were also repelled through the brave efforts of our military forces and our allies at Axis.

"No one has forgotten the horrors of Junius Seven, nor have they forgotten the horrors that were inflicted upon us I the previous attempt to wipe out our homes. The Earth Alliance, using a vague reason for war, has wantonly attempted mass genocide upon the peaceful people of the PLANT who have tried desperately to assuage the anger that was brought on by the diabolical terrorist attack upon the Earth using the remnants of Junius 7. We have tried to meet every demand that did not undermine or leave us vulnerable to those who would wish us harm. But it is obvious that it is not enough."

"Therefore, as of this moment, I have ordered all ZAFT forces to Condition Red, a state of war now exists between the Earth Alliance as a whole, and the people of the PLANTs. We, however, wish for peace. Therefore, I have ordered our forces to reinforce and dig in their positions, and will place a one week moratorium on all offensive operations. We wish for peace, surely, there are those on Earth who wish for the same. Thank you."

Gilbert then stepped off the podium and left.

"Well, that's different," Duo stated, "first time I've seen a leader urge restraint and peace after nearly facing annihilation….wait, nevermind, I remember one crazy woman that had a tendency of doing that."

Hilde punched him in the arm.

"OW OW, I'm sorry."

"It's a noble gesture," Mu admitted, "But I don't think there are any sane people minding the store at the Atlantic Federation."

"You'd be surprised," Natarle replied, "They just know to keep their heads down. Anything can happen in a week."

"What the hell?"

Duo's exclamation caused everyone's heads to snap towards the screen, where the screen had gone completely white, save for a countdown that started at 1 minute and started down.

"Heero, are you seeing this," Athrun asked, looking at the huge vidscreen in the middle of the busy Aprilius City.

"….Yeah."

"What do you mean it's on all stations? What's causing this," one of the aides shouted in his mobile as Dullindal watched the screen with a frown of consternation.

"What do you mean it is coming from multiple sources, how is it getting past the security."

"Well, this is interesting," Azrael said as he looked at the screen across from his seat in the passenger cabin of a high speed plane currently flying over the Mediterranean, folding his hands as a smile crossed his features.

The countdown flashed to zero, as it was replaced by a man surrounded completely in dark, dressed in a white, expensively tailored business suit, his matching white hair flowing down to his shoulders, and a pair of arctic-blue eyes pierced straight into the camera, but that was all that was seen, as the rest of his face, excluding his mouth, was covered by a white faceless mask.

_Knight_, Nicholas thought as his hands clenched together as the feed was filtered to his mobile suit as it moved through the debris strew field, assisting with the rescue efforts.

"Since the dawn of man, humanity has been at war. From rocks to bullets to nuclear weapons, humanity has grown increasingly more effective at killing itself with each evolution. Resources, political ideology, race, religion, each serves as an excuse for why war is waged. And as war is waged by the powerful, the poor, the oppressed, the powerless are all caught in the crossfire. No one cares for these people, they are labeled as casualties of war and ignored as they bleed and weep."

"I am Aloysius Knight and we declare NO LONGER."

The lights around Knight lit, highlighting the cavernous room he stood framed with various Serpents all at his level, but he was flanked on the catwalk by two more familiar men also decked in white…

"NO WAY," Duo yelled, shooting forward, as his eyes goggled at the sight of Wufei who stood to the right of Knight.

"We are the White Fang," Knight announced, "We stand as the guardians of those who have no power, who are oppressed by the powerful. As long as the powerful oppress the weak, we will be there, like the sword of Damocles, rendering judgment upon them with fair and equal justice that they deny those who they trample upon."

"Like the Earth Alliance fleet that had just waged an unjust and unlawful nuclear strike on the people of the PLANT."

The screen the changed to show the remnants of the Earth Alliance Fleet, as beam fire and dozens of missiles wreathed the battle group in destruction, leaving nothing left.

"However, they are not the guilty. They had attempted to wage an honorable fight and were lied to by their superiors. So they have been spared, but their implements of war have been destroyed."

The screen changed to a handful of ships that were still approaching the moon, it then returned back to Knight, Wufei, and Harrelson.

"To all of you who wish to wage an unjust war plaguing upon the weak. FEAR US, for we shall show you the true horrors of the war you impose upon others. To all of you who wish to leave in a world free of war waged by the spoiled, the irresponsible, and the corrupt, RALLY BEHIND US. We stand as the arbiters and preventers of war."

"Sic Semper Tyrannis."

The screen then cut to an emblem of a snarling wolf with a sword in its teeth, and the very motto Knight had stated framing it, before cutting back to previous programming.

But the impact was done, as the entire Earthsphere was abuzz with the newest development.

_Is Nicholas aware of the plan_, Zechs thought as he shut off the vidscreen, _no, this is different._

He glanced upwards at the ceiling.

_Should we execute the plan Heero? Or should we wait and see what this White Fang is going to do. I don't know how long I can protect Cagalli before Seiran makes his move. We make the move wrong, and it will blow up in our face and everything we've worked so hard for will disappear._

* * *

Gustavo stood shaken as he watched the explosions taking place astern as what was left of the Earth Alliance task group escaped.

Up until an hour an hour ago, he had the remnants of his fleet straggling back, now he was down to just a handful of ships, packed to the gills with the crews of all the other ships.

It had happened all suddenly, as almost every single ship in the fleet had reported multiple weapons lock from unknown enemies. And almost as sudden was the jamming and the tight-line to his ship demanding his surrender.

It had taken every iota of his being to surrender, but he had done it. Because he wasn't going to throw any more lives away for nothing.

So it was to his surprise that the commander had ordered him to select enough ships to handle the surviving crews of fleet at maximum capacity, and transfer the entirety of his crews to them. It had taken 30 minutes to do so, but after that, he was allowed to continue on to the Moon.

All this time, he had never seen the ships; his sensor technician believed that once they got back to base, they might be able to develop an accurate silhouette using the rest of the ships in the fleet. It still somewhat unnerved him that there were ships out there that seemed to be incredibly more powerful than any ship he knew existed. At final count they had detected almost two hundred different weapon locks.

It wasn't possible, but there they were, and as he watched the broadcast, he knew it was true.

So where did that leave him now? He was surprised that he had no Blue Cosmos fanatic on his bridge to kill him on the spot, or any Blue Cosmos idiot on any of the other ships to shoot back. But that still didn't change his fate; he was now the man who surrendered his entire fleet to an enemy force without a shot fired.

Yes, he could almost taste the lead in his mouth now.

* * *

Knight sat quietly as he looked at the multiple screens of new sources that were reporting the White Fang's reappearance, already it was matching with the nuclear strike on Aprilius, but in some ways it was already overtaking it.

He gave a small smile as he then took a cup of hot chocolate and sipped it.

It was one of thirty-six different plans that he had built for this one moment. But it was probably the best possible end result. The PLANTs were intact thanks to the Stampeder and the Earth Alliance fleet had enough ships to make a statement.

If the PLANTs had fallen….well, there had been an operational plan for that.

But it had worked out, the Earth Alliance fleet had blundered into the ambush point where he had placed almost two hundred missiles in space, just inside the mirage colloid of the three ships, but just outside the hull. It was also fortunate that the Earth Alliance Fleet Captain, a Cunningham, had willingly surrendered.

It was in the end, the perfect operational plan based on all the variables and already the plan was paying off. The world will be watching for what next the White Fang will do, while others will actively seek him out, both to ask what they plan, but also to rally under their banner. It was the least effort exerted for the maximum reward.

"Really Wufei," Knight said closing his eyes in response to the aura he could feel from the glowering Chang Wufei who stood behind him also watching the news, "You should sit down and at least have a drink. The world will not go faster just because you stand there willing it. And the chocolate is quite delicious."

"We should be moving to the next plan," Wufei stated, "not watching the news on how the world thinks of us."

Knight sighed, placing down the cup of chocolate on the simple platter.

"Patience. Right now I'm interested in what ORB is going to do, now that the Earth Alliance just got faceplanted in space. Are they going to align themselves with the Atlantic Federation even though they are now in a disadvantage, or are they going to reverse course and remain neutral. Or what about LOGOS, they just now lost a good portion of their forward operating strength on a desperate gamble based on shoddy intelligence and arrogant assumptions. It's more than likely they will get rid of Djibril and pick up someone who might do better. What about ZAFT? Are they going to stay the course and wage war, or are they going to hold their objectives as the same."

Knight smiled as he again sipped the chocolate, letting the hot liquid sear its way down, before taking a handkerchief and dabbing his lip.

"And what of Axis? I wonder exactly how Lady Haman is going to take this. She and I got together oh-so-well; she might just throw poor Nicholas into my old cell. That would not do well for her, but she has this nasty tendency of letting her emotions and ego get the better of her."

"No, Wufei, we'll wait, but I will green-light Operation Arminius. I want to distract ZAFT from doing anything foolish for the time being. After that, I think it will be safe to say that we'll begin Operation Nightfall."

Wufei came over and sat down in a chair to the side.

"I think I will have that drink then."

* * *

"I can't believe Wufei would betray us like that," Duo snarled, "AGAIN."

"What makes you think that he isn't working for Nicholas," Murrue asked, "after all, the White Fang was his operation."

"Do you see Wufei working with Nicholas? No? Didn't think so."

"A better question is where is Libra," Waltfeld observed, "The last anything saw of it was at Jachin Due, and then it disappeared and hasn't been heard of since. Why does the White Fang suddenly reappear, but doesn't use Libra at Aprilius. It could have easily turned the tide of the battle and done a lot more than what they are saying they will do. They stated that they will stop warfare."

"No, they didn't, they stated that they would fight against those who would wage war upon those who are weak," Mu added.

"And stop and think about it. If war is waged, there will always be the weak that are on either side. Therefore, the only way to prevent this from occurring, is to end war altogether. But by stating it as they have, they have created plausible deniability. They can pick and choose what war they prosecute based on the perceptions of weakness. "

"But the only constant strong powers are the Earth Federation, ZAFT, and….ORB."

"Which means they will wage their war against human nature," Lacus spoke, causing everyone to look at her.

"We failed," Lacus said quietly, pain tingeing her tone, "we failed in the last war to prevent this from happening. We believed that sanity would reign and we were wrong. Whoever this White Fang is, they are the mirror image of us. We fought to end the Bloody Valentine War. We stopped there. The White Fang intends for the total termination of war….by any means necessary and damn the consequences. They will be only interested in the end result."

* * *

"This is not my fault," Djibril shouted.

"Silence Djibril, because of this debacle, we have lost three entire fleets of warships," one of Logos shouted him down, "Not to mention the entire failed nuclear strike has rendered us visible."

"Lord Djibril, he has a point. This was a gamble that you did not win. We have warned you that repeated failure would result in your dismissal."

"You don't have the balls. If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't be in this position in the first place. We have what we wanted."

"But the cost, you imbecile. Sure we have got the results, but it is not worth the price we have paid in blood, treasure, and prestige. You are ruining LOGOS with your childish bullshit. You should have known that they might have developed a countermeasure, but you pushed ahead with it anyways, and then you threw men's lives away in a decoy operation. This is not acceptable, even if they are simply soldiers."

"So, who are you going to replace me with? I haven't seen anyone do enough to merit replacing me," Djibril replied haughtily.

"Oh, but there has been someone."

"Who?"

"A Mr. White of Blue Cosmos," the man replied.

"Who?"

Suddenly, all the power shut off in the room, as the door burst open, and armed men came storming into the room.

"Who the hell are you? What are you doing," screamed Djibril, "get out of here."

"Oh, I don't believe that will be possible," a voice spoke up from the door.

"Who are you? No…wait, that voice….it can't be."

"Allow me to introduce myself," Murata Azrael stated as he walked into the room, the cat Djibril hissing in response, "I am Mr. White. Oh wait, how silly of me, why did I have to introduce myself in that way when we know each other so…very….well."

"But, you're supposed to be dead...my assassins assured me."

Azrael walked up to Djibril who stood stock still as the cat scampered out of his arms and away, yowling.

"If you're going to kill someone, do it right and make sure they die," Azrael whispered into Djibril's ear, before a producing a pistol in his hand, and shooting Djibril in the gut, causing Djibril to cry piteously as he fell to his knees, holding his stomach.

Azrael walked by him and towards the screens as power came back online, bathing him in the light of the screens.

"It took me 6 months to get started back up again. 6 months dwelling on my mistakes, my follies, my arrogance. And I learned something….I learned how utterly inefficient and pointless LOGOS and Blue Cosmos is. LOGOS talks about how it will guide the world to the promised age, but all it works toward is fattening their own pockets and treating the people like gullible sheep. Then there is Blue Cosmos, our little band of cutthroats and fanatics acting as our enforcers. How many millions of lives have we thrown away in our little endeavor to wipe out an already doomed species?"

"You were the head of it," Djibril gasped, before moaning as another wave of pain washed over him..

"I don't forget that," Azrael replied, a tone of contemplation lacing his voice, "I was younger, stupid, and bigoted. I didn't look at the big picture. Instead I let something that happened when I was a child drive me. But that's behind me, I'm the new me….new and improved, bigger, badder, and with a healthy appetite for some reform. I'll show you what the Blue Cosmos should have been. Starting with LOGOS."

Suddenly the screens finally connected, to show the various rooms of LOGOS members….all dead.

"How…..," Djibril gasped, laying down on the ground, as Azrael finally located the cat, and shot it as it let out a screech, he then refocused on Djibril.

"Oh, it wasn't too hard. All I had to do was start with stealing the Anubis, ORB has such petty politics that each house seems to be willing to sell the other out for the right price, and from there, just get noticed. Once that happened, I figured out who each and every member of LOGOS was, and wait for the opportune time. I have to thank you for that."

Azrael stopped as Djibril could feel the life draining away from him.

"I did promise you an education didn't I?"

He then walked over, and kneeled, placing the pistol right in the left eye of Djibril.

"This is how you make sure someone dies."

Then the world went black for Djibril once and for all.

* * *

A/N: Azrael has taken out Djibril and Nicholas's own plans have spiraled out of control with the war becoming more chaotic by the day. The next chapter will be out soon, but I thank you in advance for your reviews and see you next time.


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